India: Government likely to provide additional wheat under free ration scheme

With brisk procurement this season on account of bumper crop prospects, the government is likely to provide additional allocation of wheat to states under the Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY). The quantum of additional allocation of wheat for the public distribution system is yet to be ascertained.

Meanwhile, wheat procurement by the government agencies has crossed 24 million tonne (MT) till Monday in the 2025-26 marketing season (April-June), up 28% on year.

This indicates that overall grain purchase by the agencies is likely to meet 31 MT target for the season.

After three years of missing the target for procurement, this will be the first season when the agencies are confident of meeting the target for wheat purchase.

Sources told FE that a formal announcement is expected shortly.

From October 2024, the government had allowed partial restoration of wheat allocated under free ration scheme, by allocating an additional 3.5 MT of grain. This took the total annual allocation to close to 22 MT.

This allocation, which was valid till March 2025, was lower by 1-2 MT from the normal quantity of wheat given to states under PDS prior to May, 2022.

In May 2022, the government had reduced wheat allocations to 10 states under the National Food Security Act, saying lower productivity and reduced procurement had impacted budgetary provisions.

The 10 states — Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu — account for 67% or 551 million of the 813 million poorest who get 5 kg of rice or wheat per head per month under free ration scheme.

The government had allocated an additional 5.5 MT of rice in place of wheat under the free ration scheme as procurement plunged in the 2022-23 marketing year.

After achieving a record procurement of 43.3 MT in 2021-22 season, the purchase by the government agencies under the MSP operations fell to record low of 18.8 MT in 2022-23 season because of lower output. However, subsequently it rose by around 40% to 26.2 MT and 26.6 MT in 2023-24 and 2024-25 marketing year, respectively.

The wheat processing industry had projected output in the 2024-25 crop year (July-June) at 110 MT against 105-106 MT in the previous year. The agriculture ministry has estimated wheat production at a record 115.3 MT in the current crop year.

Tags: grain, rice, wheat, purchase, procurement