Two weeks after he publicly announced suspension of further wheat imports in the face of allegations of a scam, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar is once again pitching for resumption of import.

On September 23, Pawar, along with senior officials of the Food Ministry is understood to have met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh  to inform him of the need for import of at least one million tonnes of wheat immediately to maintain sufficient buffer stock.

Justifying the important requirement, food ministry officials are said to have explained to the Prime Minister and senior PMO officials that the central pool stock of wheat could fall to 31.14 lakh tonnes by the end of this fiscal as against the minimum buffer stock norm of 40 lakh tones. This would affect the   Public Distribution System (PDS) and other welfare schemes, they said.

Besides citing the latest projections of the Australian Wheat Board that international wheat production this year would be at least around 36 million tonnes less than the average global production of 628 million tonnes, Pawar is believed to have suggested that international wheat price would not ease in the immediate future.  Significantly, however, domestic wheat production is expected to touch 75 million tonnes as against last year’s production of 69.3 million tonnes.

The Prime Minister has reportedly assured Pawar that a decision on the request would be taken in a few weeks’ time.

Informed sources, however, indicated that the Prime Minister might not favour bulk imports in one go. He is in favour of floating small import tenders every month instead of importing huge quantities at a time.