No Shortage Of Foodgrain In Country: Union Agriculture Minister

Mumbai: Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar informed the Parliament that there is no shortage of foodgrain in the country and stocks are sufficient to meet the demand.

The minister said there was substantial stock in the “central pool”, which refers to the federally owned food stock with the Food Corporation of India and the quantity held by the states at the Centre.

“As on 01.07.2022, the actual stock of wheat is 285.10 lakh metric tonnes (28.5 million tonnes) against the buffer norm of 275.80 lakh metric tonnes (27.5 million tonnes),” the minister told the Lok Sabha.

In a separate reply, the Agriculture Minister said the Center was able to procure less wheat this year due to higher prices offered by private traders.

“Wheat procurement has fallen due to over-purchasing by traders as the market price of wheat had gone up due to the prevailing international geo-political situation. Also, if the farmer gets a better price than the MSP, they are free to sell their produce in the open market,” Tomar said.

India banned wheat exports in May after an estimated 3% drop in production due to the heatwave. Rice production is also expected to drop due to poor monsoon affecting paddy sowing in states such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal, although official figures are not available at the moment as the government has not released them.

The minister said that the sowing of Kharif or summer sowing crops has started on time in most parts of the country. He said the area under Kharif crops as of July 25 was “773.97 lakh hectares (77.3 million hectares)), as against 768.87 lakh hectares (76.8 million hectares) in the same period last year.

Tomar also said the output of foodgrains had increased from 285.01 million tonnes in 2017-18 to 314.51 million tonnes in 2021-22, which was “an all-time record”.

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