Govt mulling duty on wheat import to protect farmers' interest

New Delhi: Government is considering imposing import duty on wheat to protect farmers' interest, Agriculture Secretary said on Wednesday.

On December 8, it had reduced the customs duty on wheat to zero from 10 percent to boost domestic availability and check retail prices.

The government has set a procurement target at 33 million tonnes for the 2017-18 marketing year, starting April.

New wheat crop will start arriving in the market from next month.

The production of wheat is estimated at record 96.64 million tonnes in 2016-17 crop year (July-June) as against 92.29 million tonnes in 2015-16 on the back of good monsoon.

The previous record was 95.85 million tonnes in the 2013-14 crop year.