What brought wheat prices below MSP?
This is not the first time when Government’s food grain management looks inefficient. As the wheat arrivals are increasing in the markets, the limited godown space with the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and other state government agencies is posing a problem. The situation is the continuation of the last year’s trend of surplus that carries its own problems. The main elements of Government’s food management policy are procurement, storage and movement of food grains, public distribution and maintenance of buffer stocks. Under these policies, Govt. undertakes to purchase the produce of prescribed specifications offered on sale by the farmers at the notified Minimum Support Price, thereby ensuring them a stable market for their produce. In the current marketing year of wheat, MSP is fixed at Rs.1100 per quintal. Now look at the average ruling prices in some of the markets. Uttar Pradesh (Hapur-1000/1040, Agra-1000/1015, Meerut-1000/1050); Punjab (Jalandhar-1055/1065); Haryana (Karnal-1
