India raises 2016 wheat support price by 5.2%: Minister

India has raised the price that the government will pay to buy new-season wheat from local farmers to 1,525 rupees per 100 kg, up from 1,450 rupees in 2015, Power Minister Piyush Goyal said.

The government buys rice and wheat from local growers to build a buffer for any emergency and to run its mammoth food welfare progammes. The state purchase also protects farmers from distress sale.

Indian farmers grow only one wheat crop in a year. Planting starts in October, with harvests from March.

The government also raised the purchase price of rapeseed, the main winter oilseed, to 3,350 rupees per 100 kg against 3,100 rupees last year, Goyal told reporters on Thursday.

The price of chickpea, the main pulse, has been raised by 7.9 percent to 3,425 rupees per 100 kg, he said, adding, the government would ask state-run agencies to procure oilseeds and pulses in an attempt to protect farmers from distress sale.