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India’s wheat and rice stocks in the Central Pool is comfortable at over 57.9 million tonnes (mt) and the country can meet its foodgrain requirements, the Food Ministry said on Thursday. “The combined stock position of wheat and rice in the Central pool is over 57.9 mt (wheat 31.2 mt and rice 26.7 mt) which has placed the country in a comfortable position to meet its requirements of food grains,” the Ministry said in a statement.
The situation is better than as of May 1 when the Central pool stocks were 55.53 mt with wheat making up 29.02 mt and rice 26.5 mt. In addition to rice and wheat, the Food Corporation of India, which maintains the Central pool, holds 22.69 mt of paddy (which can yield 14.52 mt of rice) and 0.5 mt of coarse grains.
Six-year low
The stocks are well above the mandatory norm of 21.04 mt for the period, including strategic reserves of 3 mt of wheat and 2 mt of rice. However, the Central pool stocks are at a 6-year low with wheat stocks at 15-year low and rice at 4-year low. The Ministry said the procurement of rice is going on smoothly, while that of wheat “has progressed smoothly”.
The FCI has procured 38.5 mt of rice till May 30 during the kharif marketing season with another 11 mt set to be purchased further. In addition, 10.6 mt rice has been estimated to be procured during the rabi marketing season,” it said. The progressive procurement of wheat is 26.3 mt till May 30, surpassing last year’s purchase of 18.8 mt. The procurement has ended in some of the key States.
About 21.27 lakh farmers have benefited from the wheat procurement at the minimum support price (MSP) of ₹2,125 a quintal resulting in an outflow of about ₹47,000 crore for the government. Major contributions in the wheat procurement came from Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana with procurement of 12.13 mt, 7.09 mt and 6.32 mt, respectively.
The government’s decision to relax quality specification in wheat, which were affected due to untimely rains, and opening up of procurement centres in village and panchayat level helped in “healthy procurement”, the Ministry said.
Procurement through co-operative societies, gram Ppanchayats and arhatiyas (commission agents) and engaging farmer producer organisations for the Central pool purchase were additional factors that aided the Centre.
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