India’s wheat production likely to touch all-time high of 114 million tonnes in 2023-24 crop year

Anticipating beneficial circumstances and elevated protection, a senior official from the meals ministry mentioned that wheat production is projected to attain a brand new milestone of 114 million tonnes in the present 2023-24 crop year. The remaining part of sowing for wheat, the first rabi crop, is presently underway and is anticipated to proceed till the next week. According to official information, wheat had been planted in 320.54 lakh hectares until the final week. In the previous 2022-23 crop year (July-June), wheat production achieved a report 110.55 million tonnes, surpassing 107.7 million tonnes from the earlier year.

What did FCI Charman say? 

Speaking to reporters, Food Corporation of India (FCI) Chairman and Managing Director Ashok Ok Meena, mentioned, “We expect that total area under cultivation of wheat will increase this year and God willingly if the climate is alright, the production will be 114 million tonne that’s what the agriculture ministry has indicated informally to us.”  He additional mentioned that the realm sown to wheat crop can be displaying a rise in contrast to the earlier year. There was a deficit of one per cent in some states however that will even be made up in the primary week of January, Meena acknowledged. 

“If that is the level of production, we are very confident that we will be able to procure more than our requirement and also additional stocks needed for the Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS) for next year,” the FCI Chairman added. When requested about whether or not the central nodal company intends to enhance procurement, given the opening wheat steadiness of 76 lakh tonnes scheduled for April 1, which is just ample to meet the buffer requirement, the FCI chief acknowledged, “We will make every effort to ensure the minimum support price (MSP) for all farmers. Due to open market sales, there are indications that prices have stabilized and are not higher than last year. Since the wheat MSP is higher by 7 per cent than last year, we hope that a lot of farmers will be willing to give their produce to the FCI.” 

Last year, the FCI’s wheat procurement stood at 26.2 million tonnes, increased than the annual buffer requirement of 18.4 million tonnes. This year’s wheat crop shall be prepared for harvest from April onwards. FCI is the central nodal company that buys rice and wheat to guarantee MSP to the farmers and distributes the grains at no cost to 81 crore poor through ration outlets. It additionally makes use of surplus grain through OMSS to enhance home availability and test costs.

Curbing wheat & rice inflation by way of OMSS

According to FCI, 5.9 million tonnes of wheat has been offered in the open market by way of weekly e-auction beneath the OMSS since June 2023, which has helped stabilise the retail costs. “There has been hardly any increase in retail wheat prices on YoY basis,” the FCI Chairman mentioned, including that wheat OMSS will proceed solely until March 15. However in the case of rice, there’s “of course an uptick in prices visible in the open market but the mere fact that we are making huge quantity of rice available through OMSS, I hope that the prices will also not increase substantially”, he mentioned.

There has been a lukewarm response for rice beneath OMSS and thus far the FCI has been in a position to promote only one.45 lakh tonnes at Rs 29 per kg by way of weekly auctions. 

The FCI is utilizing surplus foodgrain inventory of 15.6 million tonnes for endeavor market intervention to stabilise the costs of two key commodities. “Our OMSS intervention has helped stabilise prices of these two commodities. Rice and wheat being important parts of the CPI basket, we would hope that food-related inflation will get controlled to the maximum possible,” the FCI chief added.

(With PTI inputs)

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