Govt’s rice procurement lags at 15.14 MT

NEW DELHI, Jan 5:  Rice procurement by government agencies continues to lag at 15.14 million tonnes in the marketing year 2014-15 so far as against 16 MT in the year-ago period.
The Food Corporation of India (FCI) and state agencies undertake procurement of rice and wheat to ensure that farmers get a minimum support price (MSP).
Rice marketing year runs from October to September and the annual procurement target for this year is 30 MT.
“Rice procurement in Punjab an Haryana has almost completed. The buying in other states like Telangana is going on,” a senior FCI official told PTI.
In Punjab, rice procurement so far this year has been 7.78 MT, as against 8.10 MT in the year-ago period, while in Haryana, it reached 1.99 MT as against 2.4 MT in the review period.
Rice purchase touched 1.24 MT in Telangana and 4,83,000 tonnes in Andhra Pradesh so far this year, as compared with 1.49 MT of rice procurement in undivided Andhra Pradesh in the same period last year.
Last year, kharif rice procurement was 26.6 MT as against the target of 32.06 MT. (PTI)