Govt hopeful of meeting wheat procurement target after 3 years
By Sandip Das
The government is hopeful of meeting wheat procurement target of 31.2 million tonne (MT) for the ongoing 2025-26 rabi marketing season (April-June) thanks to strong production prospects, food secretary Sanjeev Chopra said on Thursday.
Wheat purchases by the Food Corporation of India and state-government agencies has so far crossed 25.63 MT, an increase of 24% compared to previous year.
Five states which have contributed to the wheat procurement drive – Punjab (10.38 MT), Haryana (6.56 MT), Madhya Pradesh (6.7 MT), Rajasthan (1.14 MT) and Uttar Pradesh (0.75 MT) so far.
A total of 2.1 million farmers have paid Rs 62,155 crore as minimum support price (MSP) in the ongoing wheat procurement drive. In most of the cases, payment of MSP was made to farmers within 24 to 48 hours.
“Most states are doing quite well, and we are hopeful that we would be coming close if not crossing the estimates of 31.2 MT of wheat procurement,” Chopra said in a briefing.
After three years of missing the target for procurement, this will be the first season when the agencies are confident of meeting the target for wheat purchase.
“With sufficient duration of procurement still left in the current marketing season, the country is well on course to surpass last year’s figures of wheat procurement for the central pool by a substantial margin,” according to a food ministry statement.
In the 2024-25 and 2023-24 season, wheat purchase by agencies were 26.6 MT and 26.2 MT respectively.
After achieving a record procurement of 43.3 MT in 2021-22 season, the purchase by the government agencies under the MSP operations fell to record low of 18.8 MT in 2022-23 season because of lower output.
The agriculture ministry has estimated wheat production at a record 115.3 MT during 2024-25 crop year (July-June), an increase of 2% over the previous year. Wheat sowing this season has increased to 32 million hectare (Mha) against 31.56 Mha last year and higher than the average sown area of the last five year.
When asked about lifting the export ban on wheat imposed in 2022, Chopra stated “It is premature to talk about allowing wheat exports.”
Govt introduces six codes for rice exports
To boost exports of geographical indication (GI) tagged and premium rice varieties, the government has introduced six new ITC-HS codes for GI-tagged parboil rice, parboiled basmati rice and other rice varieties.
The aim for introduction of new codes is to ensure that, in case of a ban or restriction on exports of broken or white rice, such unique varieties are exported unhindered.