Wheat procurement seen at 18-20 mt

The Food Corporation of India (FCI) and state agencies are likely to mop up between 18 and 20 million tonne of wheat in the current rabi marketing season that began from April 1.

This represents 20 to 25 per cent of the anticipated total wheat output of 75 million tonne in this rabi.

FCI chairman and managing director V K Malhotra told the Business Standard that the cash credit limit of about Rs 740 crore had been made available to its zonal offices to ensure quick payment of prices to the farmers. Nearly 1,091 bank accounts had been opened for this purpose.

The FCI's share in the total wheat procurement would be around 22 per cent. The rest 78 per cent would be mopped up by the state agencies, Malhotra said.

Over 8,000 grain purchase centres, including regular market yards, would be operated to ensure smooth marketing for the farmers. Of the anticipated procurement, the maximum quantity of around 9.6 million tonne is expected to be bought in Punjab, followed by 5.2 million tonne in Haryana and about two million tonne in Uttar Pradesh.

Small quantities of wheat are likely to picked up under the price support operations from other states like Bihar, Delhi, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttaranchal.

The Centre has fixed the support price of wheat at Rs 640 a quintal for the current year. The official purchases have begun from April 1 in all whet growing states barring Bihar and Madhya Pradesh where these would start from April 15.

Giving details of the arrangements made for the massive grain purchase operation, Malhotra said the maximum cash credit limit of Rs 489 crore had been allocated to the north zone which accounted for the bulk of the wheat production and procurement.

The south zone had been allocated Rs 125 crore, followed by west zone Rs 61 crore, east zone Rs 60 crore and the north-east zone Rs 5 crore.

"The fund requirement will be reviewed regularly and will be increased or revised as per the requirements of the region or the zone," Malhotra said.

About 1.26 lakh bales of gunny bags had already been arranged for to store the fresh produce. The FCI planned to move 34 railway rakes loaded with grains every day from the north zone to other areas to clear the stocks from this intensive wheat-producing belt. Last year, 31 rakes were dispatched daily from this area in this period.

Malhotra said the FCI had sufficient space in its godowns to ensure safe storage of the fresh produce. To meet any emergent need due to heavy wheat arrivals in the markets, the officials of the FCI had been empowered to hire additional storage capacity.