The government proposes to create a strategic reserve of five million tonnes of foodgrains out of the domestic procurement, in addition to the buffer stock already held by the Food Corporation of India (FCI).

India achieved record production and procurement of wheat in the year 2009 although the production of kharif rice in the year 2009 declined due to delayed and deficient rainfall, an official release said.

"A record procurement of rice in kharif marketing season 2007-08 and 2008-09 for the central pool and an estimated procurement of 26 million tonnes in the 2009-10 kharif marketing season have ensured sufficient stocks in the central pool for meeting the full requirements of the public distribution system as well as for maintaining our buffer stocks," the release said.

During the 2008-09 kharif marketing season ended September 2009, state agencies procured over 3.36 million tonnes of rice. The procurement of rice during the current crop year till mid-December was 13.74 million tonnes as against 13.41 million tonnes for the same period last year.

An all-time record procurement of 25.38 million tonnes of wheat during rabi marketing season 2009-10 helped to maintain comfortable foodgrain stocks with government agencies, the release said, adding that this would also help the government intervene in the market to keep the prices at reasonable levels.

The central pool has a stock of 25.2 million tonnes of wheat and a rice stock of 22.9 million tones as of 1 December 2009. With an estimated procurement of 26 million tonnes of rice in kharif marketing season 2009-10 and the present level of stocks, the requirement of targeted public distribution and other welfare schemes at current level of allocations will be comfortably met, the release said.

The release said the government has taken a number of steps to ensure their availability to the common man. The government has reduced the import duty on rice and wheat to zero. It also banned the export of non-basmati rice while at the same time imposing stock limits on rice to prevent hoarding and black marketeering.  

Besides, the centre also APL allocations were increased for 17 states and union territories to ensure a minimum allocation of 10 kg per APL family per month in order to mitigate the effect of increasing prices of foodgrains in the open market.  Further, additional allocations of 7.63 lakh tonnes comprising 6.18 lakh tonnes of wheat and 1.45 lakh tonnes of rice were made to 12 drought affected states from October to December 2009. Total allocations of foodgrains under APL during the year 2009-10 have thus been significantly higher (70 per cent) at 19 million tonnes as compared to 11.2 million tonnes during 2008-09, the release noted.
 
The production of sugar in 2008-09 sugar season is estimated to be significantly lower at about 14.68 million tonnes as compared to a production of 26.3 million tonnes in the 2007-08 sugar season. This decline in sugar production by about 11.62 million tonnes put pressure on the sugar prices, the release said.

The production of sugar in the current sugar season (October 2009 - September 2010) is expected to be higher than that in 2008-09, it added.