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.