Govt cautious on wheat procurement issue

Sharad Pawar is a worried man and that's not just because of the Indian cricket team's poor performance, but the threat of another wheat crisis that is giving him sleepless nights.

Farmers were upset about reports that the government wants private buyers to stay away from wheat markets and those reports forced the Agriculture Minister to call media.

He said that he had not banned private players like Cargill or ITC from procuring wheat at prices higher than the Centre's Minimum Support Price (MSP) of Rs 850 a quintal but hoarding has to be in check.

However, despite the Minister's claims it's no secret that the Finance Minister had called these companies and asked them not to procure wheat till the FCI has bought 15 million tonne.

In a statement issued by Cargill, the company said that private companies normally procure from states like MP, Rajasthan and UP.

They suggested that they have no plans to procure from states like Punjab, which the government focuses on. So reports that they were offering prices higher than the MSP in Punjab were wrong.

Surplus year

On the other hand FCI officials said that threats from farmers unions like the Bharat Kisan Union not to sell to FCI should not be taken seriously because in the past they have never implemented their threat.

Besides, they said that production figures are higher by 40 lakh tonne and in a surplus year it's unlikely that private traders will pick up more wheat than their requirement of 10 lakh tonne.