Agriculture Current Affair 10 May 2022

Punjab to conclude procurement from May 5 as wheat arrivals decline

In the wake of a “drastic decline” in wheat arrivals across Punjab, the Department of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs has decided to conclude the procurement of the crop in the mandis across the state. Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Minister, Lal Chand Kataruchak on Tuesday said that the closure of mandis in the state shall be done in a phased manner starting from May 5.

The notification in this regard would be issued by the Punjab Mandi Board, he said, as per an official statement here.

The minister thanked farmers, arhtiyas (commission agents), labourers, transporters and government officials involved in the month-long exercise of procurement of wheat in the state.

PMGKAY: Wheat allocation to be cut, rice to go up for beneficiaries

The government will increase allocation of rice and decrease that of wheat to beneficiaries under its free grains programme as part of efforts to ensure availability of wheat in the domestic market amid a forecast of reduced crop yield this year.

Under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana (PMGKAY), 800 million poor people are entitled to 5 kg free foodgrain every month.

According to a letter from the food ministry to the Food Corporation of India, allocation of wheat has been reduced to 7.1 mt from 18.2 million tonnes (MT). Rice allocation has been increased from 21.6MT to 32.7 MT.

Govt revises wheat production estimate downwards to 105 mn tonnes for 2021-22 crop year

The government has revised downwards the estimate for wheat production by 5.7 per cent to 105 million tonnes in the 2021-22 crop year ending June from the earlier projection of 111.32 million tonnes, as the crop productivity has been affected due to the early onset of summer. Addressing a press conference, Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey said the agriculture ministry has revised the wheat production estimate downwards to 105 million tonnes for the 2021-22 crop year from 111.3 million tonnes earlier.

India’s wheat production stood at 109.59 million tonnes in the 2020-21 crop year (July-June).

The lowering of estimates has been attributed to “early summer”.