From Railways, to manufacturing to digital and tech advancement, India has now introduced new norms and relaxation in almost all the sectors to increase growth figures. The country has for so long been tagged a status of ‘Krishi Pradhan’. Now, agriculture and allied activities as a sector too has strengthened with more jobs, better produce and MSPs, modern agri solutions, agro-startups growth and mega welfare schemes to support farmers and their produce. The efforts have resulted in pursual of many other types of agricultural practices & methods across the country like organic farming, horticulture, poultry, dry farming etc. and have also led to record stats of exports and production.
Today, India is in a much comfortable position, when it comes to having overall surplus availability of grains and stocks as they are expected to be higher than the minimum requirements for the next one year. It all becomes possible despite country’s wheat output looks likely to go down in 2022 because of a sharp and sudden rise in temperatures in mid-March, causing damage to crop yields especially in Punjab, Haryana and UP. Meanwhile, India- the world’s second largest producer of the grain has had five consecutive years of record harvests of wheat till 2021. Moreover, the edible oil prices too are likely to soften soon as the palm oil imports are expected to start very soon after a temporary ban by Indonesia.
Dispelling the concerns of potential shortage in surplus food availability, Sudhanshu Pandey, Secretary, Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD), recently cleared the air conveying that after meeting the requirement of welfare schemes in the year ahead, on April 1, 2023, India would have stocks of 80 LMT of wheat, well above the minimum requirement of 75 LMT. Total Food-grains production during 2021-22 is higher by 25.35 million tonnes compared to total figures of last 5 years. Similarly, other items that witnessed higher production in last five years include Rice (higher by 11.49 mn tonnes), Nutri /coarse cereals (higher by 3.28 mn tonnes), pulses (higher by 3.14 mn tonnes), oilseeds (higher by 3.28 mn tonnes), and sugarcane (higher by a whopping 40.59 mn tonnes).
Wheat Production, however, is expected to be 1050 LMT, which is lower than the initial estimate of 1110 LMT in FY 23. Due to higher market prices, large quantity of wheat is being bought by traders at a higher rate than MSP (Minimum Support Price), which is good for the farmers. “This year due to an increase in market prices and higher demand by the private players both for the domestic as well as export purposes, the purchase by the government agency is less. But that goes in favour of the farmers as they are getting a good price for the wheat,” Sec Sudhanshu Pandey had said. Earlier, the farmers had no option but to sell to the government. Now, they are selling only that quantity of their produce to the government, which they are unable to sell in the private market at higher prices. Therefore, from that perspective, the government procurement has reduced.
The edible oil stocks are also sufficient in the country and after a temporary ban by Indonesia, the palm oil imports are expected to start soon and this would soften the edible oil prices in the country. Besides this, India has a surplus availability of rice as well. Government has directed that locally available stocks of rice will get distributed in the same state where they are getting consumed. So, this will help exporters with their requirement of rakes or movement within the country. It is going to help the exports and all commodities including food grains. Also, the moment the state is able to distribute the rice into the PDS system they become entitled to claim their subsidy. This is an added advantage to the states otherwise they have to maintain the stocks and bear the expenses and only after distribution do they become able to get reimbursement of their Food subsidy.
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