Wheat procurement is lower by 76. per cent so far this year at 9.15 lakh tonnes mainly because of delay in harvest in Haryana. The government had procured 37.88 lakh tonnes in the same period last year, according to the latest data of Food Corporation of India (FCI).
Wheat procurement starts from the middle of March and picks up from April 1. The process ends in June. Haryana, which had contributed 28 per cent of the total procurement of 225 lakh tonnes in the 2010-11 marketing year (April-March), has procured only 44,012 tonnes till yesterday as against 20.25 lakh tonnes in the same period last year. The sharp fall in procurement is because of delay in wheat harvesting in the state. As a result, the arrival of crop in Haryana mandis so far has been only 44,569 tonnes as compared with 20.25 lakh tonnes in the year-ago period.
The procurement in Punjab, which procured the maximum 102 lakh tonnes last year, has also not picked up yet. Only 1,435 tonnes have been procured so far compared with 6.08 lakh tonnes in the corresponding period of last year. In Madhya Pradesh, wheat procurement has declined to 8.61 lakh tonnes so far against 11.32 lakh tonnes in the year-ago period even though the state is paying Rs 100 per quintal more to farmers than the Centre's minimum support price (MSP) of Rs.1,120 per quintal.
Arrivals of wheat in MP have also declined to 10.61 lakh tonnes till yesterday against 14.31 lakh tonnes in the review period.
FCI and other state agencies have procured 6,077 tonnes of wheat in Gujarat so far against 624 tonnes in the entire 2010-11 marketing year. The government had procured 22.5 million tonnes of wheat in the entire 2010-11 marketing year (April-March). FCI expects the procurement to touch 26.2 million tonnes in 2011-12 as output is estimated to be a record 84.27 million tonnes in 2010-11 crop year (July-June).
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