Buying drops significantly in Haryana and Tamil Nadu, but Punjab’s purchase is nearly at par

By Prabhudatta Mishra

Rice procurement in the 2026-27 season that began from October 1 has dropped to about 104 lakh tonnes (lt) in the first month, from over 123 lt a year ago due to poor arrivals. While purchases in Punjab are nearly at par with the year-ago period, there is significant fall in Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and Haryana.

Paddy procurement officially began on October 1, but Haryana and Tamil Nadu were allowed to begin the purchase a few weeks before. As many as 11 States were allowed to start buying paddy at the minimum support price during September-October. The MSP operation will start in other States in phases, depending on the cropping pattern followed in each State.

Punjab, which has been the top rice contributor to the Central Pool stock, purchased 73.52 lt until October 31, a tad higher from 72.98 lt a year ago, and Haryana got 26.25 lt against 38.79 lt, official data show.

Purchase in Tamil Nadu, which started a month earlier from September 1, has been dismal at 2..87 lt from 7.51 lt a year ago. Last year, procurement in Tamil Nadu started from September 1. In Uttarakhand, over 90,000 tonnes have been purchased against 3.07 lt year-ago.

Other contributions

Other States which contributed to the Central Pool include 9,879 tonnes (against 70,214 tonnes year-ago) by Uttar Pradesh, 8,357 tonnes (8,286 tonnes) in Jammu and Kashmir and 10,082 tonnes (7,851 tonnes) in Himachal Pradesh.

The government has set a target to buy 715.22 lt of paddy from the kharif-grown crop in 2026-27 marketing season (October-September). This year, there is a change in procurement data, as the government decided to lower the broken percentage to 15 per cent from earlier 25 per cent when paddy is converted to rice. The conversion ratio was earlier 67 per cent, with 25 per cent broken grain within it.

The government has also revised the rice procurement number for 2025-26 after factoring the change in the broken grain guidelines to 394.05 lt.

Lower yield, output

Officials said that arrival of paddy has been lower in all these States where procurement has started, which farmers attribute to lower crop as well as reduced yield.

Procurement has been allowed to start from November 1 in Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Bihar, Assam, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, all key contributors to the Central Pool stock, managed by FCI. In Gujarat, the Centre has allowed purchases to commence from November 16.

The Agriculture Ministry is yet to release the crop estimate of the kharif season and is likely to be announced later this month. Paddy acreage this kharif season ended lower at 433.62 lakh hectares (lh) as of October 2, against 449.18 lh a year ago.

Published Date: November 11, 2026