The Hindu Business Line : Rice procurement headed for new high

The current 2006-07 marketing season (October-September) for rice has begun with the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and State agencies procuring 54.89 lakh tonnes (lt) as per information compiled till Thursday.

Brisk harvest

This is way above the 42.37 lt purchased during the corresponding period of 2005-06. If the current trend holds, total procurement for the season could end up surpassing the record 280.1 lt touched last season. "The harvesting has been brisk this time because farmers want to vacate their paddy fields to sow maximum possible wheat keeping in view the good price realisations," officials said.

Diametrically opposite

In fact, Punjab has contributed 43.99 lt to the Central pool (against 35.06 lt during the same period of 2005-06), while progressive procurement from Haryana has correspondingly gone up from 7.3 lt to 9.93 lt.

The story of rice has been diametrically opposite to that of wheat in recent times.

While 2005-06 saw governmental rice purchases breached an all-time-high of 280 lt — nearly a third of the country's total production — wheat procurement, by contrast, hit a 10-year-low of 92.26 lt. Further, the country is expected to export over 50 lt of rice (including 10-lt of basmati), whereas wheat imports are likely to be in the region of 60-65 lt.

The other major difference is the wider geographical dispersal of rice procurement, as opposed to wheat.

While over 90 per cent of wheat for the Central pool is sourced from Punjab and Haryana, rice purchases are spread almost throughout the country.

Of the total 280.1-lt bought in 2005-06, Punjab contributed 88.52 lt, Andhra Pradesh 49.45 lt, Chhattisgarh 32.36 lt, Uttar Pradesh 31.51 lt, Haryana 20.49 lt, Orissa 17.81 lt, West Bengal 16.94 lt, Tamil Nadu 9.25 lt and Bihar 5.24 lt.