Food and consumer affairs minister Pralhad Joshi on Wednesday said “we are committed to create space and evacuating surplus rice stocks from Punjab and Haryana is our highest priority.”

Written by Sandip Das

Amidst a storage crunch due to surplus stocks held with agencies, the food ministry has chalked out a weekly evaluation plan of rice from Punjab, the biggest contributor to the central pool stock, so that space could be created for ongoing paddy procurement drive.

A food ministry official told FE that 4 million tonne (MT) of rice would be evacuated from Punjab over the next couple of months and an additional 2 MT storage facilities could be created under the Private Entrepreneurs Guarantee Scheme.

Officials said efforts are on to explore the possibility of storing some of the surplus rice in the godowns meant for wheat storage.

Due to storage crisis, in Punjab only 2.3 MT of paddy have been purchased from the farmers till Tuesday against 3.76 MT procured in the previous year. Agencies are aiming to purchase 18.5 MT of paddy from Punjab and 12.5 MT of Fortified rice is likely to be delivered to the central pool stock.

Recently, following a meeting with food minister Parhlad Joshi, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann said scarcity of rice storage capacities in the state was adversely affecting the procurement of paddy from mandis thus leading to resentment amongst farmers.

Food and consumer affairs minister Pralhad Joshi on Wednesday said “we are committed to create space and evacuating surplus rice stocks from Punjab and Haryana is our highest priority.”

As on Tuesday, FCI holds 30.29 MT of rice stocks, excluding 10.18 MT receivable from millers. The rice stock is against the buffer of 10.25 MT for October 1.

The FCI annually supplies 38 MT of rice for supply to the beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana.

“To ensure that farmers do not face any difficulty during procurement operations, adequate arrangements including online registration of farmers, integration of land records, digital procurement operations and online transfer of MSP payments, have been made,” the food ministry stated.

Till Tuesday, the Food Corporation of India and state government agencies have purchased 6.31 MT of paddy from farmers mostly in Punjab, Haryana and Tamil Nadu which is 26% less than 8.52 MT of paddy purchased in the same period last season (2023-24).

State government agencies and FCI are aiming to buy 48.5 MT of rice in the current kharif season (2024-25) which officially commences on October 1 from key grain surplus states against 46.3 MT of grain equivalent (paddy converted in terms of rice) purchased from the farmers 2023-24. Kharif season accounts for around 80% of the total rice purchase during this season.

The rice procured from grain surplus states is also used for keeping a buffer stock with FCI. After paddy is procured from the farmers by FCI and state agencies, it is handed over to millers for conversion into rice. Paddy to rice conversion ratio is 67%.

Published Date: October 24, 2024