Government may be forced to dipose of the grain via sales to ethanol distilleries and open market.

By Prabhudatta Mishra

The Indian government’s rice procurement for the official reserves during the October 2025-April 2026 period has reached near 50 million tonnes (mt), including 1.21 mt from the winter-grown crop. With over 1.4 mt in April, the procurement is up 6 per cent from the year-ago period. This high procurement may force the government to dispose of through an aggressive sales policy to ethanol distilleries, states, as well as in the open market.

The government has fixed a target to purchase 56.66 mt of rice during the 2025-26 season (October-September) – including 48.7 mt from the kharif-grown crop and 7.96 mt from the Rabi season. Total procurement in 2024-25 from kharif and rabi crops was 54.52 mt in terms of rice.

According to official data, the actual procurement in terms of rice was 49.86 mt until April 30, against 47.02 mt in the corresponding period of the previous season. In 2025-26, the government sold a record 10.8 mt rice, including 5.2 mt to distilleries for ethanol production, from official reserves, as against a total 4.53 mt in 2024-25..

Most from Telangana

Except Assam, where kharif-grown rice procurement continues till June 30 and Tripura (till May 31), the rice purchase from the Kharif season has got over in all the States, including Odisha, where it ended on April 7 and West Bengal (April 30).

The Centre’s rabi season target (between April and September), includes a maximum of 3.5 mt from Telangana, followed by 1.4 mt from Tamil Nadu, 1.1 mt from Odisha and 1.0 mt from Andhra Pradesh. The first month data show that rabi rice procurement has gone up to 1.21 mt from 1.07 mt a year ago.

From the Rabi-grown crop, maximum 5.77 lt have been bought from Andhra Pradesh and 5.15 lt from Tamil Nadu. Also, over 92,000 tonnes have been purchased from Telangana and nearly 26,000 tonnes from Kerala.

The rice marketing season begins from October and the procurement period varies from State to State, depending on the cropping pattern followed in each State. Due to early arrival of the paddy this year, the Centre allowed procuring agencies in Punjab and Haryana to begin purchase from mid-September and in Tamil Nadu from September 1.

Though purchase is a continuous process, sometimes the transfer of grains to the Central Pool gets delayed to be reflected on the record.

Up 8% in TN

In Tamil Nadu, the procurement was 8 per cent lower until the end of April at 2.12 mt, whereas the year-ago number was 2.31 mt. Telangana’s purchase is reported to be 15.4 per cent higher at 4.04 mt from 3.50 mt, while in Andhra Pradesh it has reported at 71.7 per cent rise to 3.35 mt from 1.95 mt a year ago.

In West Bengal, the Centre has been able to buy 1.67 mt of rice this year against 1.86 mt a year ago. Odisha has reported a 31.3 per cent higher purchase at 5..27 mt against 4.01 mt.

Rice procurement in the largest producing State (in kharif season), Uttar Pradesh, has ended at 4.18 mt, which is 8 per cent up from 3.87 mt. Madhya Pradesh has also reported an 18.9 per cent increase in purchases at 3.47 mt from 2.92 mt, and Uttarakhand has a 11.3 per cent rise in purchases at 5.02 lakh tonnes (lt) from 4.51 lt.

On the other hand, Punjab, which has been the top rice contributor to the Central Pool stock, purchased 10.49 mt, which is 9.7 per cent lower than 11.61 mt, and Haryana got 3.57 mt against 3.6 mt, official data show.

Chhattisgarh has reported that rice purchase was 4.3 per cent higher at 7.3 mt from 7 mt after procurement began from November 1 and ended on January 31, and Maharashtra 4 per cent up at 6.95 lakh tonnes from 6.68 lakh tonnes. Bihar reported 4.8 per cent lower at 2.50 mt from 2.63 mt. The Agriculture Ministry said that rice production in the 2025-26 kharif season is estimated to be a record 123.93 mt, up by 1 per cent from 122.77 mt the previous year. The rabi-grown rice output has been pegged at 16.72 mt from 16.13 mt in 2024-25.

Published Date: May 5, 2026