Centre lowers wheat production estimates to 105 MT for 2021-22 crop year

Citing the early onset of summer as the reason, the government has revised the estimate for wheat production lower by 5.7% to 105 million tonnes in the 2021-22 crop year ending June compared to the earlier projection of 111.32 million tonnes.

The early summer is said to have impacted crop production across India.

While addressing a press conference on Wednesday, the Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey said the agriculture ministry has revised the wheat production estimate downwards to 105 million tonnes for the 2021-22 crop year from 111.3 million tonnes earlier, reported by PTI.

Pandey attributes 'early summer' as the reason for lowering the estimates of wheat production. However, he also said that "there is no case for controlling exports of wheat."

Further, Pandey said that the has allocated 55 lakh tonnes of additional rice in place of wheat to states for distribution under the government's free ration scheme PMGKAY.

Notably, the government has introduced the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) to give free foodgrains to over 80 crore beneficiaries covered under the National Food Security Act to lift citizens' living that was affected during the pandemic.

Under the scheme, 5 kilograms of foodgrains per person per month free of cost is provided to the citizens of India. Also, there is an additional free grain over and above the normal quota provided under the scheme at a highly subsidised rate of ₹2-3 per kg.

The country's wheat production was at 109.59 million tonnes in the June - July 2020-21 crop year.