New Delhi: India has no plans to import wheat as it has enough stock to meet domestic needs, the Food and Public Distribution Department clarified on Sunday after a media report that imports of staple food grains into India are likely to start. Chances are.
“There is no such plan to import wheat into India. The country has enough stock to meet our domestic needs and FCI has enough stock for public distribution.
There is no such plan to import wheat into India. The country has enough stock to meet our domestic needs and @FCI_India There is enough stock for public distribution.
— Department of Food and Public Distribution (@fooddeptgoi) 21 August 2022
Earlier this year, several rounds of heat waves affected some wheat crops in many wheat-growing regions in India ahead of the rabi harvest.
According to the Fourth Advance Estimates of production of major agricultural crops released by the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, the production of wheat during 2021-22 is estimated to be 106.84 million tonnes, as against 111 million tonnes estimated earlier.
As tensions between Russia and Ukraine escalated into an all-out war, export demand for wheat boosted, resulting in lifelong high prices of staple food grains in local markets. The crop failure due to heat wave also pushed up the prices. Notably, the two countries involved in the conflict – Ukraine and Russia – are the two major suppliers of wheat.
In Madhya Pradesh’s Indore, which is considered one of the major mandis, wheat prices soared to Rs 2,400-2,500 per 100 kg against Rs 2,000-2,100, until a clash broke out in Ukraine. Wheat prices during this time of the year usually remain low as fresh Rabi crops make their way to physical markets or mandis.
Yet, the current wheat price in India is well above the Centre’s assured minimum support price of Rs 2,015 per 100 kg, which is a rare occurrence in itself. At present, wheat in Indore is trading at a little less than Rs 2,400 per 100 kg. Wheat prices have softened somewhat in other markets as well.
However, the wholesale prices of wheat in domestic mandis have managed to fall from their all-time high recently and have stabilized as the central government has taken several policy interventions on timely export of food grains.
For the record, to manage the country’s overall food security as well as meet the needs of neighboring and other vulnerable countries, India revised its export policy for wheat by placing its exports in the “prohibited” category.
While banning the export of wheat, the government had said that the move was aimed at managing the country’s overall food security as well as meeting the needs of neighboring and other vulnerable countries.
The Government of India was not limited to restricting the export of wheat only.
Following the ban on export of wheat cereals, the Center banned the export of wheat flour (atta) and other related products such as maida, semolina (rava/sirgi), wholemeal flour and resultant flour.
During the recent Parliament session, the government said that there is no dearth of wheat stock in the central pool.
In a written reply in Lok Sabha during the recent Parliament session, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said: “As on 01.07.2022, the actual stock of wheat is 285.10 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT) against the buffer norm of 275.80 LMT.”
Responding to another question whether it is true that procurement of wheat from farmers has declined as there has been an increase in private procurement, who have directly procured wheat from farmers, the minister agreed.
“The procurement of wheat has fallen due to over-purchasing of wheat by the traders as the market price of wheat had gone up due to the prevailing international geo-political situation,” the Union Minister said.
“Also, if the farmer gets a better price than the MSP, he is free to sell his produce in the open market.”
Wheat prices above MSP essentially mean that the Center had to buy less quantity under the price guarantee scheme as farmers are already getting higher prices for their produce from private buyers. (ANI)
This report is automatically generated from ANI news service. ThePrint assumes no responsibility for its contents.
Read also: Ready to ‘feed the world’ by summer, India may have to import wheat in winter