Wheat production in MP drops for 3 years

By Ankur Sirothia

Madhya Pradesh that claims to have consistently achieved 18% or higher agricultural growth in the last decade is witnessing a regular decline in wheat production over the last three years. Wheat production the state has gone down from 371.98 lakh metric tonnes in in 2020 to 349.23 lakh metric tonnes.

Madhya Pradesh has turned out to be the one of the largest wheat producing states in the country by surpassing Punjab and Haryana in the recent past.

According to state government statistics wheat production in the state was 371.98 lakh metric tons in 2019-2020, 356.69 lakh metric ton in 2020-21 and 349.23 lakh metric tons in 2021-22. This denotes a drop of 22.75 lakh MT of wheat.

The procurement of wheat compared to the past three years has also come down.

In the year 2021-22, 128.15 lakh metric tons wheat was procured while in 2022-23 the wheat procurement was 46.03 lakh metric tonnes and in 2023-24, 70.97 lakh metric tons wheat was procured. It states in the year 2023-24, 24.94 lakh metric tons of wheat was procured more when compared to the previous year, but it was less when compared to the year 2021-22.

The information on the wheat production and wheat procurement was shared in the monsoon session of the state assembly last month.

To justify the reason for the difference in procurement quantity, the government stated that depending on the market price and production, the wheat is procured on minimum support price.

As the reason for wheat production going down in the state, experts opined better irrigation facilities has led farmers to shift on paddy and other cash crops, which also reduces the dependency of farmers on monsoon and weather.

Former agriculture director G S Kaushal said, moving towards paddy from wheat reduces the risk factor. It could be a reason for farmers moving towards paddy.

This article has been republished from The Times of India