Rice procurement in the first month of the 2023–24 marketing season (October–September) has declined by 9 per cent, which officials attributed it as in sync with the production estimates released by the Ministry of Agriculture last weekend. The drop comes after a head start in the first fortnight.

According to the latest data, rice procurement by the Food Corporation of India dipped by 9.3 per cent as of October 31 to 103.53-lakh tonnes (lt) against 114.13 lt in the corresponding period last year. The Agriculture Ministry has estimated the production of kharif-grown rice at 1,063.1 lt this year from 1,105.1 lt in 2022–23, a decline of 3.8 per cent. In the current marketing season, the target is to procure 521.27 lt of rice.

Tempo to continue

Since procurement was up six per cent in the first fortnight, it was expected that the tempo would continue as harvesting in Punjab and Haryana started a bit earlier than last year, said a senior official of the Food Corporation of India (FCI). However, paddy procurement dipped by over 15 per cent in the second fortnight, he said.

The Centre has purchased 62.48 lt of rice, which is 13 per cent lower from 71.74 lt in Punjab and 35.79 lt in Haryana, which is 2 per cent higher from a year ago.

Though some officials attributed the fall to a strike by rice millers in Punjab on the issue of fortification as they refused to lift the paddy coming for processing, experts said the overall production in both Punjab and Haryana could be lower. However, there could be a few pockets, such as Ludhiana and Sangrur, in Punjab where the crop yield could be record, an expert said, adding that initial crop cutting experiments in Sangrur have reported an average 8.1 tonnes per hectare yield, up from 7.6 tonnes last year.

On the other hand, Uttar Pradesh, the largest producer of kharif rice, has purchased more than double at 48,345 tonnes against 22,558 tonnes a year ago. Total procurement in Uttar Pradesh was 43.89 lt last year, and the government has set a target to buy 44 lt this year.

Rice procurement in Tamil Nadu has reached 3.06 lt, down by 41 per cent from 5.21 lt and in Uttarakhand at 1.44 lt, down by 13 per cent from 1.65 lt.

Procurement in Haryana that began from September 25 is scheduled to end on November 15, while it commenced from October 1 in Punjab and continue until the end of this month. Last year, both Punjab and Haryana had a share of 28 per cent in all India rice procurement of 569.42 lt from both seasons.

“It is very crucial for the Centre to ensure the target is achieved in Punjab and Haryana this year, as many other States such as Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Odisha, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu had problems with the paddy crop. Any shortfall in these two northern States will be difficult to compensate from anywhere else without changing the zonal or local elasticity of price. It is inevitable to note that there is also a shortfall expected from other drought-hit States,” said trade policy analyst S Chandrasekaran.

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