New Delhi: Wheat production in India may touch a new record of 114 million tonnes in the ongoing 2023-24 crop year. The last leg of sowing of wheat is underway and will continue till next week. Till last week, wheat was planted in 320.54 lakh hectares. Wheat is the main rabi (winter) crop in India.
Wheat production stood at a record 110.55 million tonnes in the 2022-23 crop year (July-June), compared to 107.7 million tonnes achieved in the previous year.
‘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,’ Food Corporation of India (FCI) Chairman and Managing Director Ashok K Meena said.
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Last year, the FCI’s wheat procurement stood at 26.2 million tonnes, higher than the annual buffer requirement of 18.4 million tonnes. FCI is the central nodal agency that buys rice and wheat. According to FCI, 5.9 million tonnes of wheat has been sold in the open market through weekly e-auction under the OMSS since June 2023.
FCI has procured 31.1 million tonnes of rice so far in the ongoing 2023-24 marketing season (September-October), while the target set by state governments is 52.1 million tonnes. In terms of paddy, procurement was at 46.4 million tonnes so far this year, lower than 53.4 million tonnes in the year-ago period.
In the 2022-23 marketing season, the FCI had purchased 56.9 million tonnes of rice. According to the FCI, total foodgrain stock was at 34.4 million tonnes as on January 1. About 32.8 million tonnes of rice is being milled, which will take the total central pool stock to 67.2 million tonnes.
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