From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Food and Public Distribution Ministry has said the government has sufficient stocks of food grains to meet the requirements of the welfare schemes while the government is regularly monitoring the prices to ensure no sudden hike due to any shortage.
It claimed there will be about 159 lakh metric tonnes of wheat and 104 lakh metric tonnes of rice will be available as on January 1, 2013, well above the respective buffer norms requirements of 138 LMT of wheat and 76 LMT ot rice.
The ministry said the stock position of wheat and rice under the central pool have always remained well above the buffer norms. The buffer stocks are checked four times in a year on the 1st of January, April, July and October.
The Centre has enhanced the MSP of Wheat crop this year to Rs. 2125/qtl against the last year MSP of Rs. 2015/qtl for RMS 2022-23. Thus, increase in MSP of Rs. 110/qtl coupled with fairly good climatic conditions, it is expected that the production and procurement of Wheat during next season shall remain normal. Procurement of Wheat next season would commence from April 2023 and as per initial assessment there has been a fair increase in the sowing of Wheat crop as compared to last year.
