The government’s rice procurement rose marginally to 69.89 lakh tonnes (LT) so far in the 2017-18 marketing year that started this month, compared to 69.31 LT in the year-ago. For the current year, the government has fixed a higher rice procurement target at 375 LT on hopes of good production.
Food Corporation of India (FCI), the nodal agency for procurement and distribution, and state agencies, which normally buy in rice format, have procured 41.33 LT of the grain in Punjab and 28.56 LT in Haryana so far. The procurement in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand has just begun and will pick up pace in the coming days. So far a little over 22,000 tonnes have been procured from Uttar Pradesh.
The procurement is being done at minimum support prices (MSP). For 2017-18, paddy MSP of common grade variety has been fixed at Rs 1,550 per quintal, while that of ‘A’ grade variety at Rs 1,590 per quintal.