The Government expects to procure a record high 44 million tonnes of wheat in the rabi marketing season 2013-14 starting April. Last year, the Government had procured 38.14 mt.
The wheat procurement estimates were finalised in a meeting of state food secretaries on Monday. According to early projections, the country is expected to produce 92.3 mt against last year’s 94.88 mt.
Sudhir Kumar, Union Secretary for Food and Public Administration, requested Food Corporation of India and State procurement agencies to take advance action to open adequate purchase centers with sufficient manpower. The meeting also reviewed storage plans and discussed other issues such as the availability of credit to state agencies involved in procurement, setting of purchase centre and availability of adequate packaging material.
FCI was directed to computerise information about number and locations of centres of agencies. All States have been asked to setup a control room to update daily information on the progress of procurement on a Web Portal.