India to meet wheat output target
India, the world's second largest wheat producer, expects to meet the production target of 75.5 million tonnes this season and has no immediate plans for any more imports, a minister said Friday.
"I am confident that in the next two months we should be able to harvest over 75 million tonnes" for the year to March 2008, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar told a business leaders' conference.
No fresh imports of wheat were being considered, at least for now, he added.
However, India's national government and states need to draw up a "roadmap for taking agricultural growth and farmers' welfare to a higher growth trajectory," Pawar said.
India, once a wheat surplus nation, floated a global tender last November to purchase 350,000 tonnes to replenish buffer stocks used to feed its hungry poor and keep market prices under control.
It had earlier clinched import deals for 1.3 million tonnes last year to build up buffer stock.
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