Rice procurement in the first four months since the season began on October 1 has dropped nearly eight per cent to 397.40 lakh tonnes (lt) from 429.85 lt in the year-ago period. However, thanks to a 20 per cent increase in purchases only during January, the deficit has narrowed from 14 per cent as on December 31, 2023.

Two States – Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh – mainly contributed to the surge in procurement , officials said. “Farmers were waiting to sell paddy after the Assembly election since both BJP and Congress had promised to pay bonus over an above the minimum support price of ₹2,203/quintal,” an official source said.

According to Food Ministry data, the Centre has bought over three-times higher rice at about 22 lt in Chhattisgarh and 60 per cent more at about 17 lt in Madhya Pradesh.

The rice procurement in Chhattisgarh has been reported at 60.97 lt between October 1, 2023 and January 31, 2024, which is 4 per cent lower from 58.65 lt year-ago. It was down by 25 per cent until December 31. However, despite bumper rice procurement last month, total procurement in Madhya Pradesh is still lower by nine per cent at 28.23 lt until January 31.

Buys for welfare schemes

As the Food Corporation of India (FCI) needs about 410 lt rice to run all the government’s welfare schemes in a year, the Centre is confident of buying good amount of rice in February-March as well, whereas the target is to buy 521.27 lt of rice from kharif-grown crop. The government had purchased 568.69 lt of rice in 2022-23 from both kharif and rabi seasons. The Agriculture Ministry has estimated the kharif rice production to fall by four per cent to 106.31 million tonnes (mt) in kharif season from 110.51 mt year-ago.

Procurement in Punjab, Haryana and other northern States got completed in December, while in western Uttar Pradesh it continued till end of January. The FCI has been able to manage to buy 125.08 lt in Punjab, which is 2 per cent higher from last year’s 121.91 lt and in Haryana it is 39.42 lt against 39.51 lt in 2022-23. The target in Punjab was 122 lt and in Haryana was 40 lt this year.

In western Uttar Pradesh, the Centre has procured 11.23 lt of rice until January 31 in current season, against 14.45 lt year-ago. The official purchase in entire Uttar Pradesh has been recorded at 33.96 lt, down by 16 per cent from 40.53 lt year-ago.

In Telangana, the rice purchase continues to be lower and now reached 31.65 lt as against 41.68 lt. Rice procurement in Odisha has also reported some improvements as purchases were lower by only 3 per cent (down 26 per cent until December 31). On the other hand, gap in Andhra Pradesh continues at nearly 40 per cent. The FCI is able to buy 29.88 lt in Odisha and 11.72 lt in Andhra Pradesh during October-January of this season. Exporters are reported to be very active in these two States.

But West Bengal, which had reported a surge to 3.44 lt in October-December from 86,047 tonnes year-ago, too, has reported 18 per cent drop in procurement to 5.98 lt from 7.27 lt.

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