Centre aims to procure 31 MT wheat in 2014-15 mktg year

New Delhi, Feb 21. Government is targeting to procure 31 million tonnes (MT) of wheat during 2014-15 marketing year -- 22 per cent higher than the current year, Parliament was informed today. In a written reply to Rajya Sabha, Food Minister K V Thomas said: "The estimate fixed for purchase of wheat in the current year -- Rabi Marketing Season (RMS) 2014-15 is 310 lakh tonnes." Food Corporation of India (FCI), the nodal agency for procurement and distribution of foodgrains, had procured 25.4 MT of wheat in 2013-14 marketing year. The wheat marketing year runs from April to March but the FCI's procurement operation gets completed in three months only. For the current marketing year, the government had fixed procurement target at 42.10 MT, but procurement dropped significantly due to fall in production and aggressive buying by private traders. "In the meeting of state food secretaries to review preparation of procurement of wheat in RMS 2014-15, the states have reported that they have no problem of storage space for wheat to be procured to meet the estimates," Thomas said in the reply. Meanwhile, Agriculture Ministry in its second advance estimate has pegged the foodgrains production in the current crop year to all-time high of 263.2 MT as the country is likely to achieve record rice, wheat and pulses output on the back of good monsoon. Wheat production is estimated to rise at record 95.60 MT in 2013-14 against 93.51 MT in the previous year. Previous record of foodgrains, rice and wheat was achieved during 2011-12 crop year at 259.3 MT, 105.3 MT and 94.88 MT, respectively. In pulses, all-time high was 18.34 MT last year.