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The Centre has decided to expand its QR tagging initiative for Food Corporation of India (FCI) foodgrain bags, with plans to implement the system across three states -- Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha -- in the ongoing marketing season. The plan will cover 20 lakh tonnes of rice moved from milling points to distribution centres. The move, aimed at tracking end-to-end movement of foodgrains and curbing the recycling of grain bags, follows a successful pilot in Andhra Pradesh for rice in December 2025-January 2026, and in Punjab for wheat during April-May 2026. "We are planning to put QR tags on foodgrain bags transported from procurement states to distribution states," a senior Food Ministry official told PTI. "In the ongoing marketing season, we are going to do this in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha for rice." Under the expanded pilot, select districts from each of the three states will be covered. Approximately 10 lakh tonnes of rice will be moved with QR tagging from
The Food Corporation of India (FCI) is set to raise short-term debt of Rs 50,000 crore from scheduled banks for a three-month tenure, with a green shoe option to mop up an additional Rs 25,000 crore, a senior government official said on Monday. The funds are being raised to bridge cash flow mismatches arising from procurement and distribution of foodgrains. Tenders submitted in this regard will be opened on May 22. Total borrowings under the tender will not exceed Rs 75,000 crore at any point of time, the official added. The short-term loans will be on an unsecured basis. Notably, the government of India guarantee of Rs 6,000 crore available for food credit to FCI will not be extended to these borrowings. As per the tender terms, offers must remain valid up to August 31, with loan disbursals to be made in tranches in line with FCI's operational requirements. FCI, the government's nodal agency for procurement and distribution of foodgrains to ration card holders and beneficiaries
India is targeting 354.64 million tonnes of foodgrain production in the 2025-26 crop year starting July on the forecast of better monsoon rains, a senior government official said on Thursday. In the current 2024-25 crop year (July-June), the government had set a target of 341.55 million tonnes of foodgrain production. Foodgrains include paddy, wheat, coarse cereals and pulses. Already, the country's foodgrain production has reached 330.92 million tonnes in the Kharif and rabi seasons of the current 2024-25 crop year. The production estimates for summer (zaid) sowing are yet to be released. The foodgrain production in the summer season (zaid), sown between February and June which is between rabi harvest and kharif sowing season, stood at 16.5 million tonnes in 2023-24. Among foodgrains, the government has set a target of 147.35 million tonnes of rice production for 2025-26 crop year. Paddy is grown in all three seasons. The country is estimated to have produced 136.44 million tonne
India's foodgrain production reached a record 332.22 million tonne in the 2023-24 crop year ended June, driven by bumper wheat and rice output, the agriculture ministry said on Wednesday. The final estimate for 2023-24 shows an increase of 2.61 million tonne from the previous year's 329.6 million tonne, the ministry said in a statement. Rice production touched a record 137.82 million tonne, up from 135.75 million tonne in 2022-23. Wheat output also hit a high of 113.29 million tonne as compared to 110.55 million tonne the previous year. However, pulses production declined to 24.24 million tonne from 26.05 million tonne and oilseeds output fell to 39.66 million tonne from 41.35 million tonne. The ministry attributed the decline in pulses, coarse cereals, soybean and cotton production to "drought-like conditions in southern states, including Maharashtra and prolonged dry spell during August especially in Rajasthan". Sugarcane production decreased to 453.15 million tonne from 490.53
A village with over 50 households in Meghalaya's South West Khasi Hills district has not received foodgrains under the public distribution system for over 13 years, local MLA Renikton Tongkhar told the Assembly on Wednesday. Tongkhar raised the issue during a call attention motion, referencing a newspaper report that highlighted how the villagers of Domtynrong have been deprived of food grains for more than a decade and have also been excluded from government schemes for over 20 years. In response, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Comingone Ymbon acknowledged the issue, explaining that Domtynrong was inadvertently excluded from the state's public distribution system due to an error in the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) of 2011. "In 2011, Domtynrong village was mistakenly classified as uninhabited leading to its exclusion from the NFSA beneficiary list," Ymbon said. The SECC 2011 data serves as the Centre's database for identifying fixed beneficiaries of the NFSA allotted fo
Consumer Affairs Secretary Nidhi Khare on Wednesday directed state governments to step up vigilance on pulses stock, especially imported yellow peas, and enforce weekly stock disclosure on stockholding entities effective April 15 amid reports of some varieties of imported pulses not reaching the market. After a virtual meeting with importers, customs and state officials and other stakeholders in the pulses industry, Khare said pulses stocks in warehouses located in major ports and in industry hubs should be verified from time to time and "strict action should be taken on stockholding entities found to be reporting false information on stock disclosure portal". In the meeting, the secretary told states and Union territories that there is a need to step up vigilance over the stock position and price trends in respect of pulses to prevent hoarding and market manipulation, an official statement said. Apart from the five major pulses -- tur, urad, chana, masur and moong, the state ...
BSP chief Mayawati Wednesday said neither the freedom fighters nor the architect of the Indian Constitution Bhimrao Ambedkar would have thought that more than 81 crore poor people of the country would be dependent on free foodgrains from government as she slammed the Centre for rising inflation. Paying tributes to Ambedkar on his death anniversary, she said the condition of the poor, labourers, farmers, small businessmen, and the middle class could have been improved considerably had the Constitution been implemented in the right manner. "Immense reverence to Bharat Ratna Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar, the messiah of the poor, labourers, Dalits, tribals and backward classes of the 140-crore strong India and the architect of the country's humanitarian and egalitarian constitution, on his death anniversary," Mayawati said in a post on X. On the occasion, she, however, took potshots at the Union government, saying neither the freedom fighters nor Ambedkar could have thought of the plight