Rice distribution through PDS, PMGKAY doubled in June-August period

The Centre — in order to manage its inventories — has more than doubled the quantity of rice that it distributes through the public distribution system (PDS) and also the Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Ann Yojana (PMGKAY) between June and August this year compared to the same period last year.

For the same time period, it has lowered the quantity of wheat allocated by almost a quarter. This is in accordance with the stock drawdown levels sourced from the Food Corporation of India (FCI) website.

The strategy seems to be paying off. According to the latest grain stock levels, India will have adequate wheat and rice stocks by the end of March 2023. The decision to replace wheat with rice was taken around May-June in view of a 57 per cent drop in wheat procurement during FY23.

According to reports, the government is hopeful that by the end of March 2023, India will have approximately 11.3 million tonnes of wheat and 23.6 million tonnes of rice in the central pool after meeting all the requirements. This would be significantly higher than the buffer requirement of 7.5 million tonnes for wheat and 13.6 million tonnes for rice.

“Even after meeting the requirement of stock under NFSA, other welfare schemes and PMGKAY phase VII, as on April 1, 2023, FCI will have stock comfortably more than the buffer norms,” an official statement issued a few days back said.
 

On change in the mix between rice and wheat, an analysis of the grain stock levels shows that between June 1 and September 1, the government distributed 8.66 million tonnes of rice and 6.32 million tonnes of wheat. During the corresponding period last year, it had distributed around 3.09 million tonnes of rice and 8.71 million tonnes of wheat.

While the quantity of wheat has been cut due to low stocks because of drop in procurement, it has been more than adequately replaced by rice.

According to rough calculations, the monthly drawdown of grain stocks based on the changed mix between wheat and rice is around 8 million tonnes (MT) — 2 MT of wheat and 6 MT of rice — for both the PDS and PMGKAY.

As on September 16, FCI has approximately 22.45 million tonnes of rice and 24.09 million tonnes of wheat in the central pool. The rice stocks do not include the 9.58 million tonnes of unmilled paddy lying with millers.

Last month, the government announced that it will extend PMGKAY by three more months from October 1 till December 31, 2022. This is keeping in mind the forthcoming Gujarat assembly elections, which are due in December 2022.

With the current stock levels, change in ratio between wheat and rice, ban on export of wheat and some rice varieties and kharif paddy procurement season starting on a positive note should not pose a problem in managing grain inventories, market players said.