Govt`s rice buy may fall 0.5 mn tn short of target

"We have procured about 26.3 million tonnes of rice so far. The procurement is expected to reach 27 million tonnes," a senior government official said.

However, Food Corporation Of India chairman and managing director Alok Sinha had last month expressed confidence of achieving the target of 27.5 million tonnes of procurement in the 2007-08 marketing season ending in September this year.

 

The total rice procurement stood at 25.1 million tonnes in the previous season. As a result of likely fall in procurement this year, the Centre may not have surplus stock to create a 20,00,000 tonnes of strategic reserve for rice.

The government had decided to create a strategic reserve of five million tonnes of foodgrains comprising three million tonnes of wheat and two million tonnes of rice.

The reserve would be created after meeting the buffer stock requirement.

However, the government would not find any problem in creating a strategic reserve for wheat from this year's procurement. It has procured record quantity of 22.3 million tonnes so far against the targeted 15 million tonnes.

Out of the procurement made in the Rabi season this year, three million tonnes of wheat is available for strategic reserve, the official said.

According to the government estimate, rice production is pegged at a record 95.68 million tonnes in 2007-08, compared to 93.35 million tonnes in 2006-07. Farmers have started sowing paddy and the government is expecting the acreage to go up marginally.

Till last week, paddy acreage stood at 5.5 million hectares as against 4.7 million hectares in the year-ago period.