The government has initiated measures to support farm-gate wheat prices by raising the procurement target to 345 lakh tonnes (lt), up from 303 lt. It has relaxed quality norms across major producing States. and urged flour millers — key stakeholders in the wheat ecosystem — to procure directly from the market instead of relying on government sales.

This decision is seen by experts more of a posturing as raising the target has no meaning when actual purchases are trailing the year-ago levels and the target looks far away. “The government seems to have lately realised the impact on prices with the absence of traders and stockists from the wheat market this year compared to any normal year,” said a flour miller.

After releasing “Annual Wheat Survey Report 2026”, prepared by Agriwatch and commissioned by the Roller Flour Millers Federation of India in New Delhi on Friday, Union Food Secretary Sanjeev Chopra said that at the request of State governments, the Centre has raised the procurement target in Madhya Pradesh to 100 lt from earlier 78 lt, in Uttar Pradesh to 25 lt from 10 lt, in Bihar to 1.80 lt from 0.18 lt, in Rajasthan to 23.5 lt from 21 lt, in Uttarakhand to 0.50 from 0.01 lt.

OMSS policy

He also appealed the millers to be ‘Atmanirbhar’ in their wheat requirement and should not always depend on government’s sale. However, he said that the open market sales (OMSS) policy will be released before the new sale season commences from July.

“There was stock limit on stockists, traders, millers for the last few years. Despite that many traders and stockists had purchased wheat at higher than government rates in the hope that prices would rise. Most of the trade people lost money on wheat due to that aggressive buying and this year everyone is cautious despite the report of crop damage,” said the flour miller quoted earlier.

According to the Agriwatch report, the wheat production in 2025-26 is estimated to be 110.65 million tonnes (mt) against 109.63 mt in 2024-25. According to the government estimate, wheat output in 2025-26 is estimated to be 120.21 million tonnes (mt) as against 117.95 mt in 2024-25.

State-wise output

On the crop damage report, Agriwatch’s Nalin Rawal said that the wheat crop was so good this year that production could have reached 115.7 mt. But, due to the crop damage from unseasonal rains and hailstorms, there was a drop of over 5 mt from the initial assessment, he said. But, Navneet Chitlangia, President of RFMFI, said that the output could be somewhere 115-116 mt.

The report has pegged wheat production in Uttar Pradesh at 31.43 mt, Madhya Pradesh 27.41 mt, Punjab 15.38 mt, Haryana 10.61 mt and Rajasthan 10.15 mt. It also said that except Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Punjab, all other states are likely to have higher wheat production.

Meanwhile, the wheat procurement has reached 164.32 lt as of April 23, as against 183.49 lt year-ago. The purchase in Punjab was 75.73 lt against 59.20 lt, in Haryana 65.16 lt against 56.64 lt, in Madhya Pradesh 13.19 lt against 54.09 lt, in Uttar Pradesh 4.08 lt against 5.51 lt, in Rajasthan 5.7 lt against 7.84 lt and in Bihar 17,281 tonne against 9,991 tonne.

Published on April 24, 2026