Punjab, Haryana procure 2 million tonnes of paddy

Paddy procurement for the 2014 kharif season has started with arrival of the crop in the grain markets of Punjab and Haryana. The arrivals are at almost the same pace as last year and two million tonnes have been procured in the two states.

Punjab and Haryana are the early procurement states where procurement started registering from October 1.

Punjab procured 1.08 million tonnes till October 12, compared to 1.23 million tonnes in the full kharif season of 2013. The procurement is still on in Punjab till the middle of November.

Procurement in Haryana stood at 9.2 million tonnes till October 12, which is similar to the last season. The procurement in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Karnataka would start from October 26.

The month of November is crucial for paddy procurement as Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh would be harvesting their paddy crop staggered throughout the month.

In West Bengal and Jharkhand, the crop would mature in December.

Cyclone Hudhud, which hit the coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh, might not affect the paddy crop because the districts affected by the cyclone do not contribute significantly to the procurement of paddy, said an official in the Food Corporation of India. There might be some insignificant drop in the procurement and that will not create a dent in the total procurement.

The Union food ministry had projected paddy procurement of 30 million tonnes; this is likely to remain 28 million tonnes, because of the withdrawal of bonus on minimum support price (MSP) in certain states, fall in area under non-basmati varieties in Punjab, and a fall in levy rice obligation from 75 per cent to 25 per cent in Andhra Pradesh.

Under levy-rice regime, the millers directly buy paddy from farmers and sell rice to government agencies at MSP.