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Rice procurement in seven months until April 2025 has reached 471.94 lakh tonnes (lt), which also includes over 11 lt of rice from Rabi crop. The current procurement is marginally up from 471.14 lt.
Even as the procurement is considered high, it is still lower than what is required for buffer norm (135.8 lt on April 1) and supply under the public distribution system and other welfare schemes (about 400 lt per year). But, if the carry over stock is added, the procurement is at much higher level than the requirement, which will potentially put pressure on the government to liquidate.
The food ministry is hopeful of selling the excess stock of rice through open market sales scheme, to the State governments and also for ethanol production.
As of April 1, the Central Pool had 382.09 lt of rice and 371.51 lt of paddy, as against 301.57 lt of rice and 343.24 lt of paddy in the year-ago period.
Paddy (not rice) procurement of Kharif crop from across the country has reached 686.10 lt as of April 30 after the 2024-25 season began from October 1 last year, which is marginally lower from 687.09 lt year-ago. India is estimated to have harvested record 136.44 million tonnes (mt) of rice from Kharif and Rabi seasons. The Kharif crop share was 120.68 mt.
Rice procurement in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra and Odisha ended in March, and with this the procurement of Kharif-grown paddy has been completed in all States except West Bengal, Assam, Jharkhand and Tripura. The purchase of Rabi-grown paddy has commenced from April 1 amid a target fixed by the government to buy as much as 7 mt in terms of rice.
According to latest official data, the FCI has bought 27.42 lt of paddy from West Bengal, where procurement of kharif season crop concluded on April 30, as against 18.86 lt year-ago.
Among other States, the procurement in terms of rice was 40.1 lt in Odisha, which is 10 per cent higher from 36.4 lt year-ago. In Andhra Pradesh, purchase stood at 15.3 lt as against 14.1 lt year-ago. Rice procurement in Tamil Nadu has reported at 16 lt from 15 lt year-ago.
Rice procurement in Telangana ended higher at 3.62 lt as against 31.7 lt, in Bihar it was 26.3 lt as against 20.6 lt year-ago, Uttar Pradesh at 38.6 lt, up 8 per cent from 35.8 lt year-ago and in Madhya Pradesh it ended at 29.2 lt, higher from 28.2 lt year-ago. The FCI has procured 116.3 lt in Punjab, which is 6 per cent lower from last year’s 124.3 lt and in Haryana it is 36 lt against 39.5 lt in 2023-24. The target in Punjab was 124 lt and in Haryana was 40 lt this year.
In Chhattisgarh, where procurement ended on January 31, the Centre has bought 70 lt as against 83.2 lt year-ago.
Rice procurement is key to the government food security programme as it had substituted wheat in the public distribution programme at many States in 2024-25 when there was a drop in procurement of wheat from target.
Published on May 2, 2025
This article first appeared on The Hindu Business Line
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