Erratic rain pushes rice prices up to 20% in last 10 days

Kolkata|Pune: Uneven distribution of rainfall in the key rice-growing areas of the country has pushed up prices of the grain by up to 20% in the last 10 days, according to industry executives.

Suraj Agarwal, the chief executive of RiceVilla, a rice marketing and exporting company, said that heavy rainfall in northern India has increased the price of the new basmati rice by 9% in the last one week, while scanty rains in Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh have pushed up the prices of the common variety of rice -IR 64, which is distributed through public distribution system - by 20%. "This is partly because of the higher minimum support price and also due to lesser rain," said Agarwal. "Traders are holding back the stock."

Erratic rainfall is also seen affecting crops like moong, urad and soya bean. As on July 10, the sowing of pulses and soya bean was down by more than 10% from the previous year's levels, while sowing of rice was trailing by more than 13%.

Alok Ranjan Ghosh, director of agriculture of Bihar, said "paddy nursery coverage now stands at 96.6% and the paddy coverage is at 17.7%".

According to Ghosh, only one district has received excess rainfall and 10 have received normal rain. Twenty-two districts have had deficit rainfall till now, and five districts have received scanty rain. "We are expecting good rainfall in the next three days which may give a boost to the paddy crop," said Ghosh.

Bihar produces 77.17 lakh tonnes of rice annually. The price increase in India is four times the rise in international rate, which has gone up by 5% in last two weeks.