With
a production reaching ten times in past five years, India is today the
second largest
wheat producer in the whole world. Various
studies and researches show that wheat and
wheat flour play an
increasingly important role in the management of India’s food
economy.
Wheat production is about 70 million tonnes per year in India and
counts for approximately 12 per cent of world production. Being the
second largest in population, it is also the second largest in wheat
consumption after China, with a huge and growing wheat demand.
Production area
Major wheat growing states in India are Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana,
Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Bihar. All of north is
replenished with wheat cultivation. Wheat has a narrow geographic land
base of production as compared to rice or pulses. Wheat is a temperate
crop requiring low temperatures and most of the country is tropical.
Growth promotional activities
The total procurement of wheat ranges from 8 to 14 million tonnes,
accounting for about 11 to 20 per cent of the total production. The
government system handles only a small proportion of the total wheat
production and private merchants handle the large proportion. Yet the
support price operation and the PDS play a significant role in
maintaining reasonable and stable food grain prices in the country for
both the producers and consumers
India’s wheat production increase is driven principally by yield
growth and by shift in production from other crops to wheat and an
increase in cropping intensity. Among the major factors that affect
yield, fertilizer use appears to have less effect in recent years while
expansion in irrigated and high yielding variety (HYV) area seem to play
a more important role in raising yield.
Depending on the population and income growth, poverty alleviation and
the rate of urbanization, a demand-supply gap may open at a rate of
about 1 to 2 per cent per year which is equivalent to 0.7 to 1.4 million
tonnes of wheat, growing larger over the years. Promoting rapid economic
development and income growth in India which embraces the poor and
particularly the rural poor, may lead to considerable growth in demand
for wheat and thus an expansion in trade opportunities.
