Rice procurement tops 12 mn tonne, yet to start in East India

The procurement is almost 5.9% more than the same period last year

India’s state agencies and Food Corporation of India (FCI) have together procured around 12.52 million tonne of rice in the 2012-13 procurement season that started from October till Dec 05, almost 5.9% more than the same period last year.

However, the data showed that procurement has not started in Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal, all big rice producing states.

On Friday, leaders of major political parties raised the issue of low procurement of rice in eastern India, one of the major producing regions, in Parliament.

The government assured that a team would be sent to assess the situation and take corrective action. Overall, of the 22.45 million tonne of rice that has arrived in the mandis across the country, almost 18.22 million tonnes have been procured by the government.

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.

As on November 1, 2012, the government has around 68.3 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.