The government will likely miss its wheat procurement target and it will slip below the last year’s level of 25 million tonnes (MT), for the ongoing 2014-15 marketing year, as per Food Secretary Sudhir Kumar. State-run, Food Corporation of India (FCI) and state government-owned agencies have procured 7.5 MT of wheat so far this year, significantly lower than 11.96 MT purchased in the year-ago period. The wheat marketing year runs from April to March but FCI’s procurement operation gets completed in three months.
The wheat procurement would however be sufficient to meet the demand under the Public Distribution System (PDS) and other government welfare schemes like Midday Meal. The overall wheat purchase is expected to be much lower than the target of 31 MT set for the current year.
FCI has been able to procure 940,581 tonnes in Punjab in the current marketing year, as against 4.3 MT in the same period last year, due to delayed harvesting in the state, following recent unseasonal rains. The wheat procurement in Haryana is down marginally at 3.2 MT as against 3.7 MT, while procurement in Madhya Pradesh is also lower at 3.17 MT as against 3.6 MT in the review period. Further, procurement in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and other growing states is trailing behind last year’s level.