India has sufficient food-grains, claims agriculture minister

India has sufficient food-grains, claims agriculture ministerIndia's union Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar has said that there is no shortage of food grains in the country as the governemtn has maintained "ample" stock of over 82 million tonnes of rice and wheat.

"There is ample stock of foodgrains with the government. Availability of food-grains is comfortable. There is no dearth of foodgrains in the country," Pawar said.

He pointed out that the country had record production and procurement in the previous year and the government stock level is at 82.3 million tones compared to a buffer norm of 33 million tonnes as on July 1. He also said that the government is prepared to supply additional food-grains and it might also consider entering open market operations through schemes.

Mr. Pawar claimed that 50.16 million tonnes of wheat and 32.14 million tonnes of rice is available in the government godowns as on June 1. The buffer norm for wheat as on July 1 is 21.2 million tones and for rice it is 11.8 million tones.

There are concerns in the country that the production might be hit this year due to below average monsoon. Estimates show that the monsoon rains have been 31 per cent below average up to July 2.