Uttar Pradesh likely to miss 2026 wheat procurement target
Uttar Pradesh, India's top wheat producer, is on track to fall short of its revised wheat procurement goal for 2026, even though farmers harvested a bumper crop this year.
By June 11, the state had bought just under 2 million metric tons (MT) of wheat from farmers, missing the 2.5 million MT target set for June 15.
While this is the highest government purchase in three years and nearly double last year's amount, it still isn't enough to meet demand.
Uttar Pradesh farmers prefer private traders
The government raised its target after expecting a big harvest and rolled out over 5,800 purchase centers with MSP at ₹2,585 per quintal.
Still, many farmers chose private traders instead because they offered better prices and faster payments.
As a result, only about one-third of what's needed for public food distribution was actually procured by the state, showing that even with new policies and relaxed quality rules after bad weather, getting farmers to sell to government centers remains tough.