The government said on Wednesday that the country will have to import rice during the 2009-10 marketing season (October-September) despite surplus in godowns to meet the shortfall in Kharif crops.
Just two days ahead of the ministerial meeting to review foodgrain stocks and prices, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said, “We started rice season that is from October 2009 with almost six million tonnes of surplus… Still there is a projection that there is some shortfall of Kharif crops. So to make it up, we have to make some imports.”
Mukherjee, who heads the Empowered Group of Ministers on foodgrains, however, did not reveal the quantum and the timing of imports.
“Exactly what quantum and at what time, I can’t say,” he said on the sidelines of a Union Bank of India function in the capital.
The government estimates that there would be a shortfall of over 15 million tonnes in the 2009-10 Kharif (summer) season due to drought and floods in several states.