Punjab, India's leading wheat producing northern state, plans to boost production of high-protein wheat to capture the niche export market, particularly the Middle East, a farm official said on Wednesday.
Farmers in Punjab and central Madhya Pradesh have been growing durum wheat in small quantities but production has been limited due to the absence of favourable markets and a lack of knowledge among farmers.
"Now farmers know that the country is exporting a lot of wheat and there is a premium for high-protein wheat in the global market," S S Bassi, an official implementing Punjab's wheat programme, told Reuters.
State-run farm agencies will provide seeds for growing durum wheat over 100,000 acres (40,470 hectares) when the new sowing season starts in October, Bassi said.
He said the seeds were expected to yield about 160,000 tonnes of durum wheat, which contains about 12 per cent protein compared with about 9.5 per cent normally found in wheat grown in India.
Sowing of the wheat takes place in October and November and the crop is harvested in April and May.
Durum, which can be used to make pasta, commands a premium of about Rs 500 per tonne over the regular wheat in the domestic market, which is sold for around Rs 6,300 a tonne.
Traders expect total wheat output in 2003-04 (July-June) to be around 70 million tonnes compared with 73.5 million in 2002-03.
"We have sent some samples to exporters and local processors for approval," said Bassi. "The idea is to provide an assured market for the farmers."
Bassi said Punjab, besides targeting the domestic processing industry, also was setting its sights on the Middle East to export durum wheat.
The state's agriculture university and government-owned farm agencies had developed around 1.2 tonnes of high quality durum seeds to be used for planting, he said.
"Last year, durum wheat was grown over 3,000 acres and results were good. So we have kept the grains from that output to be used as seeds."
India, sitting on huge grain stocks, sells around 400,000 tonnes of wheat a month mainly to the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, South Korea and countries in Africa.
India does not brand its wheat and buyers use it mainly as feed wheat or mix it with grains from other origins to enhance quality.
India last year set up cleaning facilities at ports to improve the quality of grains for exports after Iraq rejected some consignments in 2001 on quality concerns.