Wheat output likely to rise by 5 MT this year: Gyanendra Singh

Farmers in India are likely to sow wheat across 31.5 million hectares, which will be 1.5 million hectares more than last year, said Gyanendra Singh, director of ICAR-IIWBR, which is the apex body for wheat cultivation in the country.

India is likely to produce 112 million tonnes of wheat during the harvest period, which will be 5 million tonnes more than last year, he added. "This year, farmers have used new seeds, which have better tolerance to heat and are high yielding in nature," Singh said, adding the new varieties are DBW 187, DBW 303, DBW 222, DBW 327 and DBW 332.

The wholesale price of wheat has been hovering near Rs 30 per kg, said traders and processors. In most parts of the country, wheat prices are trading in the range of Rs 27/kg to Rs 29.50/kg, which is 30-40% above the MSP of Rs 20.15/kg. India's wheat procurement fell to 18.792 MT in the 2022-23 marketing year from 43.444 MT due to fall in domestic output and aggressive purchase by private parties. After having initially encouraged exports at the beginning of 2022-23 wheat season, India had to ban the outbound shipments as a severe heat wave reduced production.