New Delhi: Wheat prices are expected to move up as India's estimated wheat production is projected to have declined nearly 3 per cent to 106.84 million tonnes in the 2021-22 crop year. The output has fallen mostly from heatwave that resulted in shrivelled grains in the maximum wheat producing states like Punjab and Haryana. Except for the decline in wheat, the overall foodgrain production is estimated to have touched a record 315.72 million tonnes in the 2021-22 crop year that began in July 2021 and ended in June 2022.
Releasing the fourth advance estimate for the 2021-22 crop year, the Union agriculture ministry on Wednesday said wheat production is pegged lower at 106.84 million tonnes in the 2021-22 crop year as against 109.59 million tonnes in the previous year. India is the world's second largest producer of wheat.
Though there is a decline in wheat output, a record output is estimated for rice, maize, gram, pulses, rapeseed and mustard, oilseeds and sugarcane.
The report comes at a time when prices in key mandis across the country are ruling 14-19 per cent above the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 2,015 a quintal for the current rabi season, as traders are holding on to stocks in anticipation of a further rise in prices in the build-up to the festive season, an industry source said.
Like wheat, the ministry also warned that the output of coarse cereals is likely to decline to 50.90 million tonnes from 51.32 million tonnes, while pulses output is estimated to be at record 27.69 million tonnes compared to 25.46 million tonnes in the 2020-21 crop year.
"In the 2020-21 crop year, the country's foodgrain output, comprising wheat, rice, pulses and coarse cereals, stood at record 310.74 million tonnes. Among all, rice production is projected at record 130.29 million tonnes in the crop year under review as against 124.37 million tonnes in the year-ago period," agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar said.
In the non-foodgrain category, the production of oilseeds is projected to be record 37.69 million tonnes against 35.94 million tonnes. Rapeseed/mustard seed production is pegged at record 17.74 million tonnes. While sugarcane production is estimated at record 431.8 million tonnes versus 405.39 million tonnes, cotton output would drop to 31.2 million bales from 35.24 million.
