As the wheat procurement season is on its last leg in Punjab, the state is well on its way to contributing about 35%-40% in the national food grain pool, depending on the procurement in other states.Punjabis close to surpassing the 94% of the target as close to 124 lakh metric tonne (LMT)wheat has arrived in the grain markets of the state while theFood Corporation of India(Fci) had fixed a target of procurement of 132 LMT from the state. The target for the entire country has been fixed at 3,41.5 LMT.
During the last 14 years, Punjab had been contributing 30%-50% in the national pool. In terms of quantity, Punjab had contributed maximum 132.22 LMT in year 2021-22, but interestingly, it was the lowest in terms of Percentage in these 14 years as it turned out 30.5% while the state by contributing only 96.45 LMT (first time in 14 years at less than 100 LMT), it contributed maximum so far at 51.32% in 2022-23.
In 2021-22 the country had procured bumper crop at 433.44 LMT maximum so far and due to early heat waves in the month of March in 2022-23 the production was badly affected and the procurement was limited to only 187.92 LMT.