The government hopes to buy 280 lakh tonnes of rice for the central pool during the ongoing 2009-10 marketing season, more than earlier target of 260 LT, even as the grain production this year is expected to be lower by 13 million tonnes.
"Rice procurement is progressing well. We expect rice procurement to be about 280 lakh tonnes this year," food and agriculture minister Sharad Pawar had said on Wednesday. Earlier, the minister had said that rice purchases were to be at 260 lakh tonnes this season.
In 2008-09 season, the government's rice procurement was a record 336.84 LT. According to the latest official data, total rice purchases by the Food Corporation of India and state agencies stand at 178.30 LT as on Thursday, slightly below 182 LT procured in the same period of the 2008-09 season.
Lower purchases come amid higher procurement in Punjab and Haryana, which have harvested better crop this year despite poor monsoon.
The government agencies have so far bought 92.54 LT of rice from Punjab this season, surpassing the previous record of 91.06 LT in 2004-05 season.
Purchases from Haryana stood at 18 LT, higher than 13.83 LT in the last year season. Even rice purchases in Chattisgarh have improve in the ongoing season to 18.36 LT, compared with 17.5 LT in the last year season.
In states such as Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Orissa and Tamil Nadu, the government rice purchases are lagging significantly behind.
According to FCI data, the government has so far bought 14.89 LT of rice in Andhra Pradesh compared with 21.47 LT in the same period last season.
In Uttar Pradesh, rice purchases declined to 18.46 LT from 22.19 LT, in West Bengal it fell to 2.76 LT from 5.15 LT, in Orissa it slipped to 7.84 LT from 7.68 LT, while in Tamil Nadu it dipped to 29,296 tonnes from 2.39 LT in the review period.
The country's rice production from the current Kharif season is estimated to be lower at 71.45 million tonnes, compared with 84.58 million tonnes in the last year season.
