Punjab remains at the top in government procurement of wheat

30-Apr-2025 04:43 PM

New Delhi. Although government procurement of wheat in Punjab started quite late as compared to states like Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, but from mid-April its pace increased so much that it came out on top.

According to official figures, this year the total government procurement of wheat at the national level increased to 240.50 lakh tonnes till April 23, which was 28 percent more than the procurement of 188.32 lakh tonnes in the same period last year. The process of wheat procurement is still going on.

In the state which contributes the most food grains to the central pool - Punjab, the total government procurement of wheat till April 28 increased to 95.20 lakh tonnes, which was 10 lakh tonnes more than the procurement of 85.20 lakh tonnes in the same period last year.

Similarly, the procurement quantity in Haryana improved from 59.90 lakh tonnes to 63.70 lakh tonnes. This time the Central Food Ministry has set a target of purchasing 124 lakh tonnes of wheat in Punjab and 75 lakh tonnes in Haryana. Usually both these states contribute a very large amount of wheat to the central pool.

Madhya Pradesh's performance is being seen as the best this time. Earlier the target was to purchase 60 lakh tonnes of wheat there, whereas the actual purchase has jumped sharply to 63.90 lakh tonnes, which is 30 lakh tonnes or 89 percent more than last year's 33.90 lakh tonnes.

In view of this, the government has increased the purchase target there by 10 lakh tonnes and now fixed it at 70 lakh tonnes. Last year, a total of 48.40 lakh tonnes of wheat was purchased in Madhya Pradesh.

The situation of purchase is also better in Rajasthan. Its quantity has reached 10.50 lakh tonnes there, whereas last year it was less than 3.80 lakh tonnes.

But the performance of Uttar Pradesh is weak, which remains a matter of concern for the government. The purchase of wheat there has reached around 7 lakh tonnes which is slightly more than last year's 5.40 lakh tonnes.