Government procurement of wheat in Punjab has hit a 15-year low this year, while private procurement has crossed 5 lakh tonnes. This is the first time this has happened since 2007. Not only this, the big thing is that on a large scale, farmers have got higher price of wheat than the MSP. The reason for this is that while exports are taking place on a large scale, there is a good demand in domestic demand as well. On one hand, wheat crop in the country has weakened due to a big increase in heat in March itself, while due to the war between Russia and Ukraine, the demand has increased all over the world. This is the reason why wheat crop is being bought from the farmers of India.
Government agencies including Food Corporation of India have procured 83.49 lakh tonnes of wheat till Sunday evening in Punjab. A mandi officer of Punjab says that now the process of procurement has become very slow. In such a situation, it seems that this time the procurement of wheat will not be able to cross the 100 lakh tonnes mark. Last year, 132.14 lakh tonnes of wheat was procured from Punjab, the largest contributor to the central pool. But this time the figure is expected to be less than 100 lakh tonnes. Earlier in 2007 and 2006 this figure had gone below 100 lakh tonnes.
After 15 years private companies are buying bumper wheat
Even during that time private purchases had become very high. In 2006, 13.12 lakh tonnes of wheat were procured by private companies in Punjab. Apart from this, 9.8 lakh tonnes were procured in 2007. Even during that time the international demand for wheat was very high. So far this year, 4.61 lakh tonnes of wheat has been procured by private companies, which was only 1.14 lakh tonnes last year. Apart from this, the figure of wheat procurement in 2018, 2019 and 2020 remained close to 2 lakh tonnes. An official said that we expect wheat procurement to cross 5 lakh tonnes in the next three to four days. This is happening for the first time since 2007.