The country is expected to have bumper production of wheat and rice this year. Minister of State for Consumer Affairs,
Food and Public Distribution K V Thomas said, wheat production is expected to be 900 lakh tonnes, of which there will be 370 lakh tonnes of procurement. The rice production is expected to be over a thousand lakh tons and procurement is 353.15 lakh tonnes.

The Minister said, Centre has asked states to lift PDS foodgrains needed for at least six months and build intermediate godowns to ease pressure on Food Corporation of India godowns. Mr. Thomas was talking to reporters in Chennai today.

He said, the states at present lift foodgrains from FCI and send it directly to PDS shops and the Centre has suggested to state governments to have intermediate godowns so that at least six months PDS stock could be stored. Mr.Thomas said, 61 lakh tonnes of wheat is now in makeshift storage and the issue is being taking up with states, especially major wheat producing states like Punjab and Haryana.

He said states like Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Rajasthan are also expected to produce more this year and there is storage problem in these states also.However, despite shortage of storage, loss and storagedamage was very low.