As the government's wheat purchase drive is coming to close in the most of growing states, wheat procurement has crossed 38 million tonnes (MT) in the current marketing year so far, much higher than the targeted 31.8 million tonnes for the current year compared to 28 million tonnes of wheat purchased in the same period last year.
To ensure assured price to farmers the government buys wheat at MSP but at the same time makes available foodgrains for various welfare schemes. As per the data received from the Food Ministry, the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and state governments-owned bodies have procured 380,23,024 tonnes of wheat so far this year. The maximum wheat has been procured from Punjab at around 12.80 million tonnes followed by Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh which have procured 8.6 million tonnes, 8.4 million tonnes and 5 million tonnes of wheat respectively so far. The wheat has been purchased at a minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 1,285 a quintal.
This year’s total wheat purchase would set an all-time record at 38.3 million tonnes as the procurement drive in Bihar is still going on. This record procurement can be attributed to bumper wheat production of 90.23 million tonnes this year. However, this procurement of wheat has added woes to storage capacity as against the storing capacity of 64 million tonnes, the FCI godowns are full at over 82 million tonnes.