Govt's rice procurement for central pool dips 3% at 24 MT

The government's rice procurement for the central pool is down marginally by 3 per cent at 23.8 million tonnes (MT) so far in the 2009-10 season ending September this year on account of lower production.

The government had procured 24.63 MT of the foodgrain in the same period last season, the data maintained by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) showed.

The procurement is less due to lower production of rice in the Kharif season following the twin impact of drought and floods, a government official said.

According to the FCI, the nodal foodgrain-procurement agency for the Central pool, rice purchase is higher in Punjab, Haryana and Chattisgarh, but lesser in Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa.

The government has a target of buying 26 MT of rice in the current season. It had bought a record 33.68 MT in the 2008-09 season.

The data showed FCI as well as other state procurement agencies have bought 9.26 MT of rice so far in Punjab, against 8.39 MT in the same period last season.

The purchases in Chattisgarh rose to 3.17 MT from 2.51 MT, while in Haryana it increased to 1.81 MT from 1.4 MT in the review period.

However, rice purchase in Andhra Pradesh dipped to 3.17 MT from 4.26 MT, declined to 2.41 MT from 3.34 MT in Uttar Pradesh, while in Orissa it fell to 1.45 MT from 1.63 MT in the review period, the FCI data showed.

India is estimated to produce 87.56 MT of rice this year against 99.18 MT last season.

The country needs 27.20 MT of rice to run the public distribution system (PDS) for a year and anything above that helps the government to offload more grain in the open market and cool off prices.