As anticipated, the Central government's wheat procurement operations have failed to meet the target and lagged behind last year's purchases.

According to officials, even though the production has gone up this time, the government could buy only 9.06 million tonnes of wheat from farmers till date as compared with 9.14 million tonnes in the year ago period.

Officials said India is likely to produce around 73.7 million tonnes of the food grain in 2007 compared with 69.4 million tonnes produced last year.

The procurement is lower because farmers are hoarding wheat, anticipating a further rise in its prices. The government, however, has been procuring bulk of the market arrivals. Arrivals across the country stood at 11.69 million tonnes at present compared with 12.74 million tonnes a year ago.

Officials said procurement has gone up since the government floated tenders for imports. The government, anticipating a shortfall in total procurement, floated a 1 million tonnes import tender.