Govt's wheat stocks up 51% to 9 mn tonnes

The government had 9.02 million tonnes of wheat in the central pool as on November 1, up from 5.99 million tonnes in the year-ago period.

The government's wheat stocks were unusually low last year due to low output and poor procurement.

This year, however, current wheat stocks are enough to meet domestic demand till March, a senior government official said.

The government's current monthly wheat allocation for public distribution and other state-run welfare schemes is about 1.2 million tonnes. At this rate, about 6 million tonnes wheat would be needed to meet the requirements till March.

The government, meanwhile, has made an additional ad hoc allocation of 294,000 tonnes wheat for sale to above poverty line families till December, which would increase November-March requirement to about 6.3 million tonnes.

According to government norms, after allocating wheat for all welfare programmes, there should be a buffer of 4 million tonnes as on April 1.

The official said considering the monthly average offtake is only about 70-80 per cent of the allocation, and that the government is importing 1.3 million tonnes wheat this year, it will easily meet the April 1 buffer norm.

It is also planning to import another 1 million tonne wheat this year to shore up reserves.

It has asked three state-run trading agencies""MMTC, PEC and State Trading Corp."" to import about 330,000 tonnes wheat each during January-March.

Though the government's wheat stocks appear comfortable as of now, its rice stocks may be a mater of concern.

As on November 1, the government had 10.65 million tonnes rice in the central pool, down from 12.51 million tonnes a year ago.

The official said rice stocks, however, do not pose any immediate threat as the procurement season for rice has just commenced.

The government has bought 8.08 million tonnes rice from farmers till date, as against 8.55 million tonnes in the year-ago period.

To ensure higher rice procurement this year, the government has already banned export of non-basmati rice and announced a bonus of Rs 50 a quintal in addition to the minimum support price.

It may announce another bonus to speed up rice procurement.

As the lower rice stocks were more than offset by the sharp year-on-year rise in central pool wheat, the government's total food grain stocks as on November 1 were up 6 per cent at 19.7 million tonnes.