India sets 5% higher kharif rice procurement target at 48.5 mt in 2024-25 season
The Indian government has fixed kharif-grown rice (paddy converted in terms of rice) procurement target at 48.5 million tonnes (mt) for the 2024-25 marketing year (October-September), up from the actual procurement of 46.3 mt in the current season. Still, it has asked States to focus on increasing purchases of nutri-cereals (Shree Anna).
The government’s rice procurement target was 52.49 mt from the kharif-grown crop and 10.12 mt from rabi season in the 2023-24 marketing year.
The Centre has also set a target to procure 1.9 mt of kharif Shree Anna during the 2024-25 marketing season and the target is much higher compared to the procurement of 0.66 mt purchased at MSP from farmers during 2022-23 Kharif marketing season.
Union Food Secretary on Friday chaired a meeting with State Food Secretaries and officials of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to discuss arrangements for procurement of crops in ensuing Kharif Marketing Season 2024-25, an official statement said.
Impeding factors
Several factors impacting procurement such as weather forecast, production estimates and readiness of States for procurement operations were reviewed during the meeting, Food Ministry officials said. “States/UTs were advised to focus on procurement of millets for diversification of crops and enhanced nutrition in dietary patterns,” the Food Ministry said.
The procurement period of kharif-grown rice in the 2023-24 season (October-September) ended on June 30 as different States follow different period depending on the rice-growing season. The procurement in 2023-24 was 6.5 per cent lower than 49.53 mt procured in 2022-23, due to a drop in most of the States.
Welfare programmes needs
The government needs about 40-41 mt of rice annually to run all the welfare programmes including the obligation under the National Food Security Act (NFSA).
The government has been discussing with stakeholders to dispose of the surplus rice, estimated to be 17-18 mt in 2024-25, so that the retail prices are brought down. It has already started selling rice through weekly auction to private traders under the Open Market Sales Scheme (OMSS) and also allotted 2.3 mt of rice for ethanol production for two months (September-October).
The Agriculture Ministry is expected to release the first advance estimate of all crops including rice for the 2024-25 crop year (July-June) soon. Current data show that the key cereal of the season, paddy sowing has increased by 4 per cent to 394.28 lakh hectares as on August 23 against 378.04 lh in the year-ago period, the Ministry said last week. The sowing area under the crop has now reached 98 per cent of normal area.