Government has fixed higher rice procurement target of 33 million tonnes for the 2016-17 marketing year starting October while directing states to open adequate number of purchasing centres.
Rice procurement has already surpassed the target of 30 million tonnes set for the current 2015-16 marketing year (October-September).
The Food Corporation of India (FCI), the nodal agency for foodgrain procurement and distribution, has so far purchased 30.92 million tonnes of rice.
"The procurement target for 2016-17 has been finalised at 33 million tonnes," an official statement said.
India is estimated to have produced over 103.36 million tonnes of rice in 2015-16 crop year (July-June), which is 2.12 million tonnes lower from 105.48 million tonnes achieved in 2014-15 crop year.
Target for Punjab has been kept at 9.4 million tonnes (MT) followed by Chhattisgarh (3.5 MT) Uttar Pradesh (3.35 MT), Haryana and Andhra Pradesh (2.9 MT each), Odisha (2.4 MT) and Bihar (2 MT), West Bengal (1.7 MT), Telangana (1.5 MT) and Tamil Nadu (1 MT).
The target for Jharkhand has been kept at 2,72,000 tonnes, Madhya Pradesh (9,00,000 tonnes), Maharashtra (2,50,000 tonnes), Kerala (1,22,000 tonnes), Assam (75,000 tonnes) and Karnataka (50,000 tonnes), it said.
Rice procurement target was fixed at the meeting of the state food secretaries chaired by Union Food Secretary Vrinda Sarup. The meeting also reviewed arrangements for procurement of paddy and coarse grains for 2016-17.
In the meeting, states have been asked to identify immediately areas with maximum paddy production and to open adequate purchase centers and deploy sufficient manpower.
They have also been advised to make arrangements for publicizing minimum support price and procurement centers opened through print, audio-visual media and pamphlets in local languages.
On storage front, state governments have also been asked to prepare details of storage plan to meet the deficit in storage requirements, if required.
Regarding packaging material, the states are requested to place indents to purchase jute bags in time to avoid last minute shortage of packaging material.
The states have been also told to adopt the system of e-procurement and integrate it with Online Procurement Monitoring System (OPMS) of FCI.
The FCI has been directed to constitute joint teams with the state governments to oversee the conduct of procurement operations and to attend specific complaints.
