All eyes are on Odisha and Madhya Pradesh, who combined contributed over 13% to the Central Pool last year, to make up for the deficit in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, as overall rice procurement has increased by 11% so far this season. As the procurement in the State is projected to be on par with the previous year, if not less, the early benefit that was likely to have come from Chhattisgarh seems to have faded out. As of December 19, the total amount of rice purchased was 297.1 lakh tonnes (lt), up from 267.3 in the previous year, according to government figures.
The ongoing purchase operations have benefited up to 48.92 lakh farmers. The total amount of rice purchased in Chhattisgarh, where the procurement was advanced by a month, was 39 lt as opposed to 21.3 lt in the previous year. The official stated, “If the November Chhattisgarh procurement is excluded, there is just 2 lt greater than the quantity bought in the State a year ago,” adding that it will further narrow down in the following 30–40 days.
On the other hand, the procurement in Madhya Pradesh more than doubled to 10.4 lt from 5 lt a year ago and reached 5.5 lt in Odisha, up 86 percent from 2.9 lt. While Odisha obtained 48.31 lt during the 2021–2022 season (October–September), Madhya Pradesh only obtained 30.7 lt. The amount of rice purchased increased by 8% in Haryana to 39.5 lt, while it decreased by 2.6% in Punjab to 121.9 lt.
As anticipated, procurement in Uttar Pradesh decreased 18.5% from 21.8 to 17.8 lt as a result of the production being affected by a weak monsoon. Given that official purchases fell by 27% in December (1-19), some officials do not rule out a further decline.”Since UP supplied 44 lt last year, it will be challenging to recover this year’s loss of 11 lt from other States. The 3 lt gain from Haryana was negated by the decline in Punjab, which was the same amount. Our current focus is on MP, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh, the official stated.
