The government-owned Food Corporation of India (FCI) will keep selling rice and wheat on the open market since it possesses more of both grains than is needed in accordance with the buffer rule. However, based on how quickly wheat is being used up from its store, the FCI will have the required reserve by April 1st, which is close to the buffer standard. This means that the harvest and purchase of the upcoming winter crop, which will begin to arrive in March, will be the only factors influencing the government’s foodgrain management program, which includes providing free rations to 81 crore impoverished people and intervening in the market to control prices. Government data shows that on January 1, FCI’s wheat and rice stocks were 34.5 MT, compared to the buffer norm of 21 MT. The millers have not yet delivered 33.3 MTs of rice. As of January 1, the buffer requirement of 13.8 MTs was exceeded by the wheat stocks with FCI of 16.5 (MTs). Wheat inventories as of January 1 are at their lowest point since 2017. FCI managing director Ashok K. Meena responded, “We will try our best to provide minimum support price (MSP) to all farmers,” to a question about whether the government agency plans to step up procurement considering the opening wheat balance of 7.6 (MTs) to be on April 1, which is just enough to meet the buffer requirement. We are hopeful that more farmers would be ready to donate their produce to the FCI because the wheat MSP is 7% higher than it was last year.