The government on Friday set the target for wheat procurement at a record 44.4 million tonnes (MT) for the Rabi marketing season (2022-23) commencing on April 1.
Food Corporation of India (FCI) in collaboration with state government-owned agencies will procure wheat from farmers in the key producing states, including Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh during April-June.
According to the second advance estimates of foodgrain production, the Ministry of Agriculture had estimated India’s wheat production at 111.32 MT. This implies that the government agencies would be purchasing close to 40% of the total wheat production in the country.
In the 2021-22 (marketing session), the government had purchased 43.34 MT of wheat from the farmers by paying the minimum support price (MSP). This year the government will pay an MSP of Rs 2,015 per quintal to the farmers.
The state-wise procurement target of wheat includes Punjab (13.2 MT), Madhya Pradesh (12.9 MT), Haryana (8.5 MT), Uttar Pradesh (6 MT) and Bihar (1 MT).
Sudhanshu Pandey, Secretary, Department of Food and Public Distribution, chaired a meeting of food secretaries and officials of FCI for discussing arrangements of procurement for wheat for the Rabi marketing season and Rabi paddy procurement season.
The government has also decided to procure 4.29 MT of rice (Rabi) from seven producing states. The rice is mostly grown in the Kharif season, while a lesser quantity of rice is grown in southern states.
During the meeting, promotion of coarse grains, implementation of minimum threshold parameters for online procurement operations, supply of jute bags and packaging material, storage space, improving efficiency and transparency in procurement operations and online settlement of food subsidy claims were also discussed, according to a government statement.
FCI is the central agency that manages procurement, storage, and transportation of rice and wheat to states for distribution mainly for the NFSA and other welfare schemes.
More than 800 million people get highly subsidised five-kg foodgrains per head per month under NFSA. This includes around 2.5 crore Antyodaya Anna Yojana households, which constitute the poorest of the poor. They are entitled to 35 kg per household per month at subsidised prices.
The economic cost of food grains procurement by FCI which includes expenses such as MSP payment to farmers, procurement, acquisition and distribution costs, etc for rice and wheat are Rs 3,597.17 and Rs 2,499.69 per quintal, respectively in 2021-22, while the government distributes rice and wheat to beneficiaries under NFSA as Rs 3 and Rs 2 per kg, respectively.
The Union Budget (2022-23) has made around 28% less provision for food subsidy allocation of Rs 2.06 lakh crore in 2022-23 against the revised estimates of Rs 2.86 lakh crore in 2021-22. Lesser provisioning of food subsidy is because of additional expenses incurred because of implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana till March 31 2022.
