Allaying fears of a delay in paddy procurement because of storage crunch in Punjab, the biggest contributor to the central pool grain stock, food minister Prahlad Joshi said on Sunday sufficient storage is being created in the state through evacuation of grain to consuming states.
While stating the food ministry has provided the state government month-wise evacuation of rice from Punjab to expedite paddy procurement, Joshi said that some slowdown in paddy lifting is because of high moisture content in the grain due to rains just prior to harvesting.
While 1.6 MT (million tonne) of storage capacity is available in Punjab, another 6.5 MT of storage capacity will be available in the state with the evacuation of surplus rice to consuming states by March 2025. “We are shifting around 1.3 MT – 1.5 MT rice monthly from the state to consuming centres,” a food ministry official said.
“The agencies are committee to purchase 18 MT of paddy from Punjab in the current kharif season,” Joshi said at a briefing by adding there has been some misinformation about the storage crunch. More than 3 MT of additional storage capacity is being created in the state through private entrepreneur guarantee scheme..
As on Saturday, out of 5.45 MT of paddy arrival in the mandis across Punjab, 5 MT of paddy has been purchased at minimum support price (MSP) in the ongoing kharif marketing season (2024-25). In the previous kharif marketing season during the same period, paddy arrivals in Punjab was 6.58 MT against a MSP purchase of 6.15 MT.
Joshi said that Rs 9819 crore has been approved for payment of MSP for paddy purchased in Punjab so far.
According to a food ministry note, 3800 millers have registered with agencies for paddy procurement in the states out of which 3250 millers have been allotted work.
At present, FCI holds 30.13 MT of rice stocks, excluding 11.19 MT receivable from millers. The rice stock is against the buffer of 10.25 MT for October 1.
On the demand from the millers in Punjab for reducing the existing out turn ratio (OTR) or paddy to rice conversion from 67% citing that paddy variety of PR-126 have been giving 4% to 5% lower OTR, Joshi said the variety grown is in use in Punjab since 2016 and “there had never been any such issues reported previously,”.
According to a food ministry statement, “a study has been assigned to Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur for reviewing the present OTR and driage incidentals of paddy and OTR norms prescribed by the Government are uniform all over India and are agnostic of the seed variety,”.
Meanwhile,Bharat Bhushan Binta, president, Punjab Rice Industry Association has urged the centre to reconsider and conduct field trials immediately to prevent further economic loss.
FCI annually supplies 38 MT of rice for supply to the beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana.
Till Friday, the Food Corporation of India and state government agencies have purchased 8.86 MT of paddy from farmers mostly in Punjab, Haryana and Tamil Nadu which is 20% less than 11.05 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 (88.67 MT of paddy) 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.
Key contributors to central pool rice stock include – Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. 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%.