The procurement of rice by the government has increased by 25% to 24.47 million tonnes (MT) in the 2015-16 marketing year so far. This increase was despite prospects of lower production due to poor monsoon. The centre has kept rice procurement target of 30 MT for the current marketing year, which started in October. The procurement operations are undertaken by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and state government owned agencies. These agencies had procured 19.66 MT in the year-ago period, while the total purchases had reached 32 MT.
The procurement has currently been completed in states of Punjab and Haryana, while the operations are in full swing in Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. As per the government’s latest data, rice procurement in Uttar Pradesh has risen to 2.15 MT so far this year as against 1.15 MT in the year-ago period. The procurement in Chhattisgarh has risen to 3.72 MT from 2.86 MT, while that of in Andhra Pradesh has increased to 1.92 MT from 1 MT in the said period.
Besides, rice purchase in Telangana was lagging behind at 0.99 MT so far this year as against 1.48 MT in the same period of the 2014-15 marketing year while. In Punjab, rice procurement rose to 9.34 MT from 7.7 MT, while that of in Haryana jumped to 2.85 MT from 2.01 MT in the period under the review.