PINAKI MAJUMDAR
Jamshedpur, May 17: The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has supported the decision of the Union government to ban exports of wheat by saying that in the wake of the current situation, the ban is a welcome move to meet the concerns of the government to keep stocks for domestic consumption at the first point.
This step was necessary to protect the food security in India, said CAIT national secretary Suresh Sonthalia.
While welcoming the decision, he said that the unscheduled and sudden but extensive heatwave in the country has caused a substantial loss in wheat production.
“There is a shortage of wheat at the global level and war between Russia and Ukraine is one prime factor for that. India is a land of huge marginal income people and the availability of “Roti, Kapda and Makaan” is the priority of the government. To ensure that the country does not face any shortage of wheat, it looks like the government has taken this decision, ” he said.
India is the second-largest producer of wheat all over the world, after China. About 30 million hectares of land are used for wheat production. It is expected that this year the production would be around 125 million metric tonnes.
The domestic consumption of wheat stands at 105 million metric tonnes. However, preventive steps are necessary to avoid the shortage of wheat in India and therefore the decision of the government is appreciated.
Apparently, there seems to be no adverse impact of this ban on farmers and traders but it needs at least 48 hours to understand the impact of the ban on the market, said Sonthalia.
Meanwhile, local traders continued their stir of not lifting food grains for the second consecutive day against the Mandi tax levied by the state government.
Market sources said there will be a crisis of food grains in the local market of Jamshedpur if the strike continues long.
