India’s foodgrain reserves in the Central Pool surged to a record high of 122 million tonnes (mt) as of June 1.

Equal to the country’s entire annual rice consumption, this massive stockpile gives the government a critical buffer just as El Nino risks disrupting the 2026 kharif crop.

Given that the country’s free foodgrain schemes for over 80 crore beneficiaries require an annual offtake of 56 mt (based on 2025-26 data), the current reserves are sufficient to comfortably sustain these welfare programmes for at least two years.

According to Food Corporation of India (FCI) data, the government has 122.64 mt of foodgrain stocks — 68.34 mt of rice (including 28.7 mt in paddy form but in terms of rice), 53.41 mt of wheat and 0.9 mt of coarse grains. The total offtake of foodgrains under various heads such as the National Food Security Act, PM Poshan, ICDS, for military/para military forces, natural calamity, festivals allocation, for adolescent girls (SAG) was 56.09 mt in 2025-26 — 17.99 mt wheat and 38.1 mt rice.

“The stock in the Central Pool, although higher than requirement, assures the country of food security. There is no cause of concern as far as basic food availability is concerned even if the monsoon is below normal. The stocks can also be offloaded under the open market sale scheme to bulk consumers including State governments,” said Union Food Secretary Sanjeev Chopra.

OMSS programme

What Chopra is saying suggested that the Centre may release grains to States for bulk consumers under Open Market Sale Scheme.

Despite the “below normal” monsoon forecast, at 90 per cent of long period average, the government is targeting the kharif foodgrains production during 2026-27 of 176.16 mt, against actual output of 176.04 mt in 2025-26.

The target for 2026-27 also includes 123.15 mt of rice, 8.4 mt of pulses, 28.92 mt of oilseeds, 13.56 mt of nutri cereals and 31.04 mt of maize.

“We may need higher allocation under open market sale scheme (OMSS ) also to check food inflation. So, the allocation of rice for ethanol at highly subsidised price of ₹2,320 per quintal needs to be drastically reduced from about 5.2 mt announced earlier,” said former Agriculture Secretary Siraj Hussain , who is also a former CMD of FCI.

Published on June 16, 2026