Rice procurement down by 8 per cent this year so far

NEW DELHI: Rice procurement by government agencies is lagging behind by 8 per cent at 9.2 million tonnes in the ongoing 2014-15 marketing year so far from the last year's level of 10 million tonnes during the same period.

State-run Food Corporation of India ( FCI) and state agencies undertake procurement of rice and wheat to ensure farmers get a minimum support price (MSP).

Rice marketing year runs from October to September. Annual procurement target for this year is 30 million tonnes.

"Most procurement is currently going on in Punjab and Haryana. Procurement in other states will begin as the harvesting progresses," a senior FCI official told PTI.

In Punjab, rice procurement has reached 7.23 million tonnes so far this year, marginally down from 7.49 million tonnes in the year-ago period, as per FCI data.

In Haryana, rice purchase remained down at 1.87 million tonnes from 2.5 million tonnes, while procurement in Chandigarh was lower at 10,000 tonnes from 11,000 tonnes in the review period.

However, rice procurement in Uttar Pradesh was higher at 18,000 tonnes this year so far compared to 15,000 tonnes in the year-ago period.

In Tamil Nadu, procurement operations began at a slow pace as only 2,500 tonnes of rice has been purchased this year so far as compared to 42,000 tonnes in the year-ago period.

The official said that rice procurement will get over in Punjab and Haryana in the next 10 days, while the buying operations in south and eastern parts of the country will begin shortly.

Last year, kharif rice procurement was 26.65 million tonnes against the target of 32.06 million tonnes.