Plan to Reduce Broken Rice Percentage in Ration Supply

17-Mar-2025 08:46 AM

Plan to Reduce Broken Rice Percentage in Ration Supply
★ The government is considering reducing the percentage of broken rice in ration supplies. Currently, the standard allows up to 25%, which may be reduced to 10%. Millers will be allowed to sell broken rice directly to distilleries.
★ This plan has two main objectives: to curb irregularities in the Public Distribution System (PDS) and to promote the use of broken rice in ethanol production.
★ This year, the government allocated 2.4 million tonnes of broken rice to distilleries for ethanol production, valid until October 31, 2025.
★ Recently, under a pilot scheme, 10,000 tonnes of rice were sold in Punjab, Haryana, and Andhra Pradesh after removing 15% of broken rice.
★ In Custom Milled Rice (CMR), from 100 kg of paddy, about 67 kg of rice is processed, which typically includes up to 25 kg of broken rice. The goal is to reduce this to 10–15 kg.
★ As of March 1, 46 million tonnes of paddy stock was available, from which approximately 23.8 million tonnes of rice will be produced.
★ From the 45.875 million tonnes of paddy, FCI (Food Corporation of India) will receive 23.8 million tonnes of rice. Out of this, 10% broken rice—approximately 6.9 million tonnes—can be directly sold by millers to distilleries.