30 lakh MT more wheat this year

CHANDIGARH: Punjab has contributed 99 lakh metric tonne (MT) of wheat to the Central pool this year to ensure food security in the country which is 30 lakh MT more than what it had contributed on an average during the last years. Ironically, despite this quantum jump, Punjab���s share in the Central pool has declined substantially from 75.3% in 2006-07 to less than 45% in 2008-09.In fact, this year the state���s share in the Central pool is record lowest.
Interestingly, Punjab���s share has been record highest (75.3%) couple of years ago when it had contributed 69.5 lakh MTs which was far less than its usual contribution that had on average been above 80 lakh MT during the past 15 years. Both Haryana and Punjab together had contributed a whooping 99.5% to the Central pool in 2006-07 while their actual contribution to the pool was all time low of just 91.8 MT. But this year, when both the states have jointly contributed over around 151 lakh MT tonne of wheat to the food basket of India, their share is reduced to just 68.5%.
This is a strange phenomena indeed. In fact, when procurement is low in Punjab and Haryana ��� the main contributing states, the surplus in other wheat producing states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan too is reduced to negligible. But when procurement is high in Punjab and Haryana, the other wheat producing states too contribute liberally to the Central pool.
For instance, Union food minister Sharad Pawar had fixed a target of 150 lakh MTs for the FCI and urged Punjab to contribute 80 lakh and Haryana another 40 lakh MTs. But both the states together exceeded the national target. However, the contribution of the other states too was substantial resulting in FCI ending up with record procurement of 220 lakh MTs of wheat.
The earlier record procurement was 206 lakh MTs in 2001-02, but then Punjab has contributed 105.6 lakh MT and Haryana 64.11 lakh MT ��� individually record highest by both the states.
Significantly, Uttar Pradesh has contributed 28 lakh MTs, Madhya Pradesh 23 lakh MT, Rajasthan nine lakh MT and Gujarat four lakh MT of wheat which is individually record contribution of these states to the food basket. Even states like Delhi, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Bihar too have contributed their small bit while procurement is reported though negligible in Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.
On the contrary, when the country was reeling under acute foodgrain shortage and had to import about 70 lakh MTs of wheat during the last two years, the share of states other than Punjab and Haryana was just a half a lakh MT in 2006-07 and less than 10 lakh MT in 2007-08 compared to a whopping contribution of around 70 lakh MTs this year.