Govt to miss rice procurement target this year

The government may not achieve the rice procurement target of 27.6 million tonnes this year even though it started purchasing the foodgrain from the last week of June at an increased price fixed for 2008-09 marketing season, an official said.

“Rice procurement has touched 27 million tonnes so far and we may end up with 27.3 - 27.4 million tonnes of rice during the current marketing season ending this month,” a senior government official said.

The government, however, has been able to procure only 792,000 tonnes during July-August against 700,000 tonnes in the same period last year despite paying the enhanced minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 850 a quintal from June 24, sources said.

On June 12, the Centre had announced an ad-hoc MSP of paddy at Rs 850 a quintal for common variety and Rs 880 a quintal for Grade A variety for 2008-09 marketing season starting October, which has been regularised.

Sources pointed out that in view of lagging rice procurement in the current season, the government started paying the increased MSP from June 24 itself.

The Food Corporation Of India (FCI) was paying Rs 745 a quintal for common variety and Rs 775 a quintal for Grade A variety, which included a bonus of Rs 100 a quintal, since beginning of the current rice procurement season from October 2007. The Centre had initially targeted to procure 27.6 million tonnes but later scaled it down to 27 million tonnes.

The sources blamed rice millers of Andhra Pradesh for slow procurement. Besides, they said that states like Orissa, Chhattisgarh have not transferred the total quantity of rice procured by them to the central pool.

Rice procurement stood at 27.08 million tonnes in 2007-08 marketing season till yesterday against 25.02 million tonnes in the year-ago period. The rice procurement in Punjab is the highest among all states, with FCI purchasing 7.89 million tonnes followed by Andhra Pradesh with 6.68 million tonnes.

Uttar Pradesh has contributed 2.84 million tonnes to the central pool while Chhattisgarh 2.56 million tonnes, Orissa 2.31 million tonnes, Haryana 1.57 million tonnes, Tamil Nadu 867,000 tonnes and West Bengal 1.20 million tonnes.