Early indications suggest that paddy procurement would increase during the current Kharif marketing season, and the Center anticipates that foodgrain procurement by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and other agencies will surpass levels from the previous year. “Paddy procurement is expected to be completed by Kharif. Paddy will be added, totaling 900 lakh tonnes. It will be 610–615 lakh tonnes of rice. In actuality, we will exceed the 600 lakh tonnes of rice we purchased last year. This is true even when irregular rains have a negative effect on paddy fields,” said Sudhanshu Pandey, Union Food Secretary, in Bengaluru on Friday.
The Chairman and Managing Director of Food Corporation of India, Ashok Meena, stated that preliminary procurement statistics show that the procurement has increased by roughly 20% so far since the process started compared to the same period last year. While precise information is lacking, as of September 30, Tamil Nadu’s procurement amounted to 1.99 lakh tonnes. Farmers will be guaranteed MSP. Even while the overall production may fluctuate as the systems become more predictable for the farmers, the government will be making considerably more purchases overall.
The money is guaranteed to enter the bank account immediately by the government. As a result, the purchase of rice will be slightly higher than it was last year, according to Meena. Due to insufficient rains in crucial growing regions in eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal, the area planted with paddy during this Kharif was 402.88 lakh hectares (LH) less than it was the previous year (423.04 lakh hectares). The paddy coverage, however, was just a little bit greater than the typical area of 398.25 LH.
In its first advance estimate, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare estimated the output of rice at 104.99 million tonnes, down from the fourth advance estimate of 111.76 million tonnes last year. The MSP for the paddy has increased this year from $1,940 and $1,960 to $2,040 and $2,060 per quintal for the common variety and Grade A, respectively.
