“The total production of wheat which accounts for about 35 per cent of India’s foodgrains’ basket may reach 100 million tonnes by 2016-17 from the level of about 93.5 million tonnes as of 2012-13,” the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) said in a study titled ‘Wheat Economy of India’.
“However, unless concerted efforts are made to fight the vagaries of weather, risk of pests and diseases and poor productivity in most wheat producing states, it is difficult to achieve higher wheat production targets on a consistent basis,” Assocham study stressed.
Wheat procurement is largely restricted only to Haryana and Punjab as other states despite having significant share in wheat production have poor share in wheat procurement owing to inadequate infrastructure and lower marketable surplus.
“Considering the growing population and needs for country’s food security there is a compelling need to increase the yields significantly by focusing on high yielding varieties suitable for various geographical and climatic regions,” the study stressed.
The report also suggested that there is a need to shift from the present ad-hoc policy and adopt a logical approach to encourage private sector participation in the trade.
“Timely crop advisory should be extended to all wheat farmers and expert guidance should be provided during critical stages of growth and close to harvest as climatic variations such as early warming up, severe winter, hailstorm and unseasonal rains during maturity result in damage to standing crop year-after-year and also affect yields besides quality,” the study opined.
With a share of over 32 per cent, Uttar Pradesh (UP) has emerged on top in terms of wheat production in India followed by Punjab (18 per cent), Madhya Pradesh (14 per cent), Haryana (12 per cent) and Rajasthan (10 per cent), the study said.
Though, with over 90 million tons (MT) of annual wheat production India ranks second only after China in terms of global wheat production of about 700 million grown on over 240 million hectares globally.
