Wheat procurement has declined by 75 per cent to 13.04 lakh tonnes so far this year as arrivals are yet to pick up in Haryana and Punjab. Procurement from these two states made up for nearly three-fourth of the central pool last year which stood at 51.2 lakh tonnes Procurement in Haryana and Punjab, which generally starts from April 1, has been very low till yesterday because of less arrival of crop in markets owing to delay in harvesting.

Food Corporation of India expects the procurement to touch 26.2 million tonnes in 2011-12 marketing year on the back of record wheat production of 84.27 per cent in 2010-11 crop year(July-June).