The wheat procurement season has ended in most big foodgrain-growing states with an all-time high purchase of almost 28 million tonnes (mt), creating a problem of storing such huge stocks.
Procurement of wheat and rice put grain stocks in the central pool to a record 65.59 mt by the middle of June.
In the central pool, the food grain stock is estimated at 64 mt, while the total storage capacity available with the Food Corporation of India and state agencies is around 63 mt.
The present stock with the central pool is far more than the buffer stock and strategic reserve requirement.
The previous record stocks were 64.83 mt in 2002.
Official figures show that as on July 7, the country had 26.8 mt of rice and 37.14 mt of wheat in the central pool.
This was almost 85 per cent more than the requirement under buffer and strategic norms for wheat and 149 per cent more than the required quantity of rice.
During the start of the wheat procurement season in April, government officials had estimated that the procurement in 2011 would be 26.27 mt, up almost 17 per cent more than
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