Nearly 50 percent drop in rice procurement for central pool
18-Oct-2024 02:24 PM
New Delhi. Although the central government has significantly reduced the target of rice procurement for the 2024-25 marketing season, the performance of procurement in the current Kharif marketing season is not satisfactory yet.
It is understood that the pace of government procurement of paddy is slow due to the opposition of commission agents (arhatiyas) and lack of storage facilities in Punjab.
According to the data received, only 20.70 lakh tonnes of paddy could be procured from farmers from October 1 to 15 in the current year, which was 48 percent less than the procurement of 39.40 lakh tonnes in the same period last year.
Last year, paddy harvesting started before the normal time, due to which its procurement was also fast and the procurement quantity increased by about 6 percent during the first fortnight.
The Central Government has set a target of procurement of 485.11 lakh tonnes of rice (paddy equivalent) during the current Kharif marketing season of 2024-25, which is less than the target of 521.27 lakh tonnes set for the 2023-24 season.
During the entire marketing season (Kharif + Rabi) of 2023-24, 525.37 lakh tonnes of rice was procured for the Central Pool, which was 44 lakh tonnes less than the total procurement of 569.40 lakh tonnes in the 2022-23 season.
This year, government procurement of paddy started from September 1 in Tamil Nadu and September 27 in Haryana, while the procurement process started from October 1 in Punjab and Western Uttar Pradesh.
Although the new marketing season has formally started in eastern Uttar Pradesh, there is no or negligible arrival of paddy in the mandis there.
In fact, paddy harvesting usually starts in November in this division. In Punjab, only 5.44 lakh tons of rice was purchased till October 15, which is much less than the purchase of 15 lakh tons during the same period last year.
Similarly, in Haryana, the purchase decreased by 42 percent from 22.20 lakh tons to 12.90 lakh tons. On the other hand, in Tamil Nadu, the purchase of rice increased by 17 percent from 1.92 lakh tons last year to 2.25 lakh tons this time.