Rice procurement by government agencies dips by 5% to 9.91 MT

The procurement of rice by government agencies stood at 9.91 million tonnes (MT) so far in the ongoing 2014-15 marketing year. This is a drop of 5% compared to procurement of 10.42 MT in the same period last year. The rice marketing year runs from October to September and the annual procurement target for this year is 30 MT.  State-run Food Corporation of India (FCI) and other state agencies undertake procurement of rice and wheat in order to ensure that farmers get a Minimum Support Price (MSP). The state of Punjab and Haryana is witnessing much of the grain purchase activity while the procurement in Telangana has commenced on November 17. The procurement of grain in other states like Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal will begin after two weeks. So far this year the procurement of rice stood at 7.6 MT in Punjab, as against 7.9 MT in the year-ago, while in Haryana, it reached 1.96 MT as against 2.38 MT in the review period. In Telangana, as much as 212,000 tonnes of rice was procured so far this year. Last year, kharif rice procurement was 26.65 MT against the target of 32.06 MT.