Rice procurement starts on sluggish note

Around 7.9 million tonne of rice has been procured for the central pool this season till Oct 31, down 3.5% compared to last year

India’s annual rice procurement for 2012-2013 crop marketing season has got off to slow start mainly because of low procurement in Punjab, one of the country’s main rice growing state.

According to an official statement, till October 31, 2012, around 7.9 million tonne of rice has been procured for the central pool this season, around 3.5% less than the same period last year. The procurement season starts from October 1 and ends in September.

Senior officials from the Food Corporation of India (FCI) said that procurement is slow to start with because paddy in some parts of Punjab has higher than required moisture content.

“But, we are hopeful that as the season progresses, more quantities of rice would be purchased for the central pool especially after Diwali,” the official said.

Till October 31, in Punjab, state agencies and FCI has purchased around 5.8 million tonne of rice for the central pool, as against 6.29 million tonne during the same period last year. 

In Haryana, the government has procured around 2.1 million tonne of rice till October 31, around 23% more than the same period last year. Rice procurement in other major growing states of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand will start from December onwards.

India annually procures around 35-38 million tonne of rice for the central pool to distribute it at cheap rates for the Public Distribution System (PDS). In 2012-2013, the government has targeted to procure around 40.1 million tonne of rice for the central pool, around 15% higher than the actual procurement of 2011-2012.

Meanwhile, across India, around 22,000 paddy procurement centres are expected to open during the current marketing year, the maximum 8,500 being in Bihar.

As on October 1, 2012, the government has around 66.5 million tonne of foodgrains in the central pool, which included wheat and rice, while the storage space available with it was around 71.4 million tonne, which also included covered area plinth and storages with state governments.

“Going forward we might not feel much of the pinch on storage till the time wheat procurement starts in April as rice in major producing states of Punjab and Haryana is procured by the state governments and it goes to millers for storage and milling,” another official said.