With wheat stocks feared to go below buffer levels and elections around the corner, the Modi government has declared that all entities connected with the wheat trade must disclose their holdings every week to prevent hoarding and a resultant spike in prices.
The wheat stock stood at 9.7mt on March 1 and is likely to fall below the April 1 buffer norm of 7.46mt for the first time in over 16 years, sources said.
The Department of Food and Public Distribution said it is maintaining “a close watch over the stock position of wheat and rice to control prices and ensure easy availability in the country”.
Entities such as wheat traders, wholesalers, retailers, big chain retailers and processors must declare their stock position in a government portal —evegoils.nic.in/wheat/login.html — with effect from April 1 and then every Friday, the food ministry said.
The ministry said the purpose of the exercise was to “manage the overall food security and to prevent hoarding and unscrupulous speculation. All the respective legal entities to ensure that stock is regularly and correctly disclosed on the portal,” the food ministry order said.
“Rice stock declaration by all categories of entities is already in place. Any entity which is not registered on the portal, may register themselves and start disclosing the wheat and rice stock every Friday.
Now, all legal entities have to declare their wheat and rice stock on the portal regularly,” it said.
The country has been trying to contain wheat prices after heat waves hit production for two years, forcing the government to sell record volumes to boost availability.
Wheat inventories held in government warehouses dropped to 9.7 million tonnes (mt) at the start of this month, the lowest since 2017.
In the 2023-24 season, the government procured about 26.2mt against the target of 34.15mt.
Procurement was only 18.8mt against the target of 44.4mt in the preceding year. The procurement was lower due to a fall in production.
The government is worried about inflation and has been selling wheat through open market sales and giving free grain through the public distribution system.
Sources said the stocks are likely to be precariously close to the buffer of 7.46mt for April 1. The last time stocks were below the present levels was way back in 2008. It had then dropped to 5.8mt in April.
The FCI annually requires around 18mt of wheat for distribution of grain under the free ration scheme — Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyana Anna Yojana.
Earlier this month, the government stopped the open market sale of wheat which was carried out since June last year through weekly e-auction with a record ever sales of 9.4mt to bulk buyers.
The agriculture ministry in its second advance estimate of foodgrain productions for the 2023-24 crop year (July-June) has projected wheat output at 112mt, which is marginally higher than the previous crop year.
The market, however, does not see wheat output exceeding 110mt this season. If weather conditions are favourable, output is likely to be around 102-105mt, analysts said.
