Government Raises 2017 Local Wheat Purchase Price: Report

Government Raises 2017 Local Wheat Purchase Price: Report
India is the world's second biggest rice and wheat producer.

New Delhi: The government has decided to raise the price at which it will buy new-season wheat from domestic farmers in 2017 by Rs 100, a senior government official told reporters on Tuesday after a meeting of the Cabinet.

The official, who declined to be named as he was not authorised to speak to media, said the revised purchase price would be Rs 1,625 ($23.98) per 100 kg compared with Rs 1,525 a year ago.

Higher purchase prices are aimed at boosting wheat output.

India, the world's second biggest rice and wheat producer, buys the grains from local farmers at state-set prices to build stocks to run a mammoth food welfare programme which covers about 75 per cent of its 1.3 billion people.

($1 = Rs 67.7605)

© Thomson Reuters 2016
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