India rice procurement crosses 25 million tonnes

Rice procurement by the government has crossed 25 million tonnes so far in the ongoing 2009-10 kharif marketing season, nearly 2.9 million tonnes short of target. According to official data, total rice purchased by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and state agencies stands at 25.13 million tonnes so far this season against 25.57 million tonnes in the last one. The Centre has set a target to procure 28 million tonnes of rice this season, more than the annual requirement of 27.2 million tonnes for running the Public Distribution System (PDS), even as production is expected to be lower by over 11.6 million tonnes this year. According to official estimates, rice production is pegged at 87.56 million tonnes in the 2009-10 season against 99.18 million tonnes last year. FCI and other state-run procurement agencies had last year purchased a record 33.68 million tonnes of rice following bumper production of 99.15 million tonnes. The government is procuring the rice grown in the June-September period of the 2009-10 kharif season. The purchase is almost complete in Punjab and Haryana and was much higher than last year. Punjab contributed 9.27 million tonnes compared to 8.44 million tonnes in the same period last year to the central pool, while procurement stood at 1.81 million tonnes in Haryana against 1.41 million tonnes in the year-ago period. The procurement in Chhattisgarh has improved to 30.20 lakh tonnes from 2.54 million tonnes last year. However, rice purchase in Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh is lagging behind at 3.61 million tonnes and 2.5 million tonnes, respectively, from the year-ago period.