India’s January rainfall hit a five-year low at 12.4 mm, taking the deficit in rainfall to 25% in the month, according to data from India Meteorological Department (IMD).
“The rains have happened and the wheat crop is in exceptionally good condition without any incidences of diseases,” he said adding that India is likely to produce 112 million tonnes of wheat or a little more during the harvest period as the area sown under wheat has increased.
In 2022, India’s wheat output fell when a severe heat wave reduced production drastically, shrinking procurement, which fell to 18.792 MT in the 2022-23 marketing year from 43.444 MT in the previous year. After having initially encouraged exports at the beginning of 2022-23 wheat season, India had to ban outbound shipments because of reduced production.
Singh said the country is better prepared for such an incident this year as farmers have used new seeds with better tolerance to heat and are high yielding in nature. The new varieties are DBW 187, DBW 303, DBW 222, DBW 327 and DBW 332.
“We are also issued advisory for farmers and helping government agencies to handle such an adversity better if it happens again this year,” Singh said. He added that in India, extreme weather scenarios such as sudden rise in temperature, heat stress, excess rain take place only once in 4-5 years and so the chances of it happening this year are low.
Area under wheat has increased marginally by 0.37% to 341.85 lakh hectare (ha) so far in the ongoing rabi season and has been sown in 341.85 lakh ha as of January 27 against 340.56 lakh ha in the year-ago period.The higher area is reported from Rajasthan (2.52 lakh ha), Maharashtra (1.28 lakh ha), Bihar (1.28 lakh ha), Chhattisgarh (0.52 lakh ha), Gujarat (0.44 lakh ha), Uttar Pradesh (0.22 lakh ha), Jammu & Kashmir (0.08 lakh ha) and Assam (0.03 lakh ha), the data showed.
The wholesale price of wheat had been hovering at an all-time high of Rs 30 per kg in Delhi in January when the government had to intervene announcing an Open Market Sale of 3 MT of cereal from the stocks of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to processors and traders.
Wheat, along with mustard, is the main rabi crop whose sowing begins around October and harvesting happens in March and April.