Patna, (Bihar Times): Thanks to the Centre’s decision to increase the minimum support price of wheat by over 25 per cent. The Food Corporation of India has procured 2.18 lakh metric tonnes of wheat till now against paltry 8,055 metric tonnes last year. The figure is likely to go up further. In fact last year the wheat production in the state fell by 19 per cent whereas the rabi crop this year is much better. Even the NASA report some weeks back predicted that the state is heading for a bumper rabi crop.
The impact of rise in minimum support prices of wheat and rice––of former now Rs 1,000 per quintal––has been felt elsewhere in the rural economy too. For example the share-croppers are now offering Rs 5,500 to 7,000 per acre annually for the land to the owners against Rs 3,500 to 4,000 only last year. A farmer told Bihar Times that as both the land-owners and share-croppers are hoping to earn more profit from the land the rate has automatically gone up.
The figure is all time high not only for the state, but also for the country. Till now 2.10 lakh metric tonnes of wheat has been procured against 2.06 lakh tonnes last year. It is not only Bihar, but even traditionally non-wheat producing states like Maharashtra and Gujarat, which have shown remarkable improvement in the wheat procurement. For example over three lakh metric tonnes of wheat has so been procured in Gujarat.
However Punjab, with 100 metric tonnes, Haryana 52 lakh metric tonnes, UP 23 lakh tonnes and Madhya Pradesh 19 lakh tonnes are the leading wheat producers of the country.
FCI sources say that the wheat procurement in the state may touch four lakh tonnes by the end of the season. As this is the first time that so much food grains have been procured the state is facing the problem of storing them. The FCI storage facilities stand at five lakh metric tonnes, which is now proving inadequate.
This is because rice and other paddy stocks have already been stored there. According to General Manager Food Corporation of India, Anurag Gupta they might have to move some of the procured wheat to the neighbouring states.
