Stock of 559 lakh tonnes of food grains present in government warehouses on October 1

03-Oct-2024 06:13 PM

New Delhi. The arrival and government procurement of Kharif paddy has started amid abundant stock of rice in the central pool, due to which its quantity will continue to increase in future.

But the case of wheat seems to be a bit complicated because its sowing is about to start while the new crop will not come before March April 2025.

According to the available data, on October 1, 2024, a total stock of 559.24 lakh tonnes of food grains was present in the central pool with 317.17 lakh tonnes of rice and 242.07 lakh tonnes of wheat.

Earlier, on September 1, the total stock of food grains was estimated at 574.57 lakh tonnes, which included 251.46 lakh tonnes of wheat and 323.11 lakh tonnes of rice.

A total of 492.85 lakh tonnes of foodgrain stock was available in the year 2023 with 232.88 lakh tonnes of rice and 260.37 lakh tonnes of wheat and 493.25 lakh tonnes in the year 2023 and 244.65 lakh tonnes of rice and 248.22 lakh tonnes of wheat in the period under review in the year 2022.

The government has decided to release additional stock of 35 lakh tonnes of wheat for distribution between October 2024 and March 2024 under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, which will provide relief to the beneficiaries in those nine states where the allocation of wheat under the Public Distribution System (PDS) was stopped or reduced in the year 2022.

Along with this, it is also being indicated by the government that there may be a delay in starting the process of e-auction (sale) of wheat under the Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS). Anyway, it is already quite late. The process for selling wheat under this scheme was decided in July itself.