In a first, FCI to start rice procurement from Tripura from December

State-owned Food Corporation will start rice procurement for the first time in Tripura from December as the Centre has given in-principle nod after state chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb resolved certain issues in his meeting with Union Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan here Friday.

The Food Corporation of India (FCI) will procure paddy directly from farmers at a minimum support price (MSP) and get it milled at a rate of Rs 15-20 per quintal on behalf of the state government for distribution through the public distribution system (PDS).

Tripura produces 12 lakh tonnes of rice, while its PDS requirement is around 2.71 lakh tonnes per annum. In the absence of procurement, rice is being transported from Punjab for PDS distribution in the state at present.

"Farmers are not getting benefit of the MSP in Tripura in the absence of FCI procurement. Farmers are selling rice at a lower rate of Rs 12 per kg, whereas the MSP fixed by the Centre is Rs 17.50 per kg rice. We discussed about the need to start the procurement for the benefit of farmers," Tripura chief minister Deb told reporters after the meeting with Paswan here.

Since the milling charges in Tripura are much higher than the rate fixed by the FCI, the state government has agreed to bear the difference, he said.

"FCI was not willing to procuring at a high milling rate. We have decided to bear the difference. FCI will start procurement from December onwards," Deb said.

Milling charge in the state is high at Rs 150 per quintal for milling, while the FCI has an uniform rate of Rs 15-20 per kg for milling for all states.

Since the rice to PDS in Tripura is brought from Punjab at a transportation cost of Rs 250 per quintal, the chief minister demanded the centre to consider a relaxation in the norm for the northeastern state in milling charges.

"Even if rice is milled at a rate of Rs 100 per quintal in Tripura, there will be a saving of Rs 100 per quintal. A separate policy for the state should be there," he said.

To this, a senior Food Ministry official said that the government has agreed to look into this proposal.

The state also demanded that a percentage of rice milled from one quintal of paddy to be kept at 65 per cent instead of 68 per cent at present.

To this proposal, the ministry official said there are several demands from other states and a study is being conducted by a south-based rice institute. A decision will be taken after examining the study report.