Foodgrain stock in central pool rises to above 624 lakh tonnes

10-Jun-2024 04:34 PM

New Delhi. Official data shows that the foodgrain stock in the central pool increased to 624.23 lakh tonnes on June 1, 2024, which is 43.61 lakh tonnes more than the stock of 578.62 lakh tonnes available on May 1 and 48.12 lakh tonnes more than the stock of 576.11 lakh tonnes available on June 1, 2023.

Compared to May, the stock of rice improved from 319.07 lakh tonnes to 325.18 lakh tonnes at the beginning of June and the stock of wheat increased from 259.55 lakh tonnes to 299.05 lakh tonnes.

On the other hand, the stock of paddy decreased from 293.33 lakh tonnes to 267.76 lakh tonnes and the stock of coarse grains fell from 4.57 lakh tonnes to 3.92 lakh tonnes during the same period.

On 1 June 2023, the central pool had a stock of 576.11 lakh tonnes of food grains including 262.23 lakh tonnes of rice and 313.88 lakh tonnes of wheat, while the total stock available on 1 June 2022 was 642.62 lakh tonnes, which included 331.20 lakh tonnes of rice and 311.42 lakh tonnes of wheat.

The purchase of Kharif paddy has ended but the government procurement of the crop produced in Rabi and Zaid seasons is still going on.

In the Kharif season, 462.10 lakh tonnes of rice (paddy equivalent to it) was purchased, while in the Rabi season, 38.90 lakh tonnes of rice was purchased till 31 May.

The total government procurement of rice reached close to 501 lakh tonnes, but still it was 5.7 percent less than last year's 531.10 lakh tonnes.

As far as wheat is concerned, its government procurement has been slightly more than last year but remained far behind the target set. In most states, the procurement process has ended and even where it is still going on, the arrival of wheat at procurement centres is negligible.

As a result, it will not be possible to increase the government stock of wheat much now, whereas withdrawal can happen at a fast pace.