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4 states want Centre to extend paddy procurement deadline as lockdown and rain hit season
West Bengal, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Assam wrote to Centre, asking for an extension until 30 September from the current deadline of 15 September.
by Samyak PandeyNew Delhi: West Bengal, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Assam — the four major rabi rice-producing states — have urged the Central government to continue procurement of paddy from them till 30 September, extending the current deadline of 15 September.
According to senior officials in the consumer affairs ministry, these four states had written separately to the secretary, food and public distribution, in the first week of September, seeking an extension for rice procurement by the Food Corporation of India (FCI).
Officials said the states have asked for the extension on the ground that the current procurement season has taken a hit due to surplus rain in August.
Also, West Bengal, Assam and Tamil Nadu have specifically sought extension due to a delay in crop arrival and a subsequent lag in procurement due to the nationwide Covid-19 lockdown.
A senior official from the ministry, who didn’t want to be named, told ThePrint: “The paddy rabi crops in these states usually arrive late due to delay in sowing.”
However, he added, there was an additional delay in starting the procurement operations this year due to lockdown in these states.
“There has been a severe flood-like situation in Assam and Maharashtra due to excessive rainfall in August. Parts of Maharashtra border with Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka reported almost zero procurement in August. Also, states like West Bengal have just procured 17 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT) of rice, which is down by 3.8 per cent as compared to last year despite a surplus crop,” added the official.
Increase in rice procurement may lead to storage crisis
However, a further increase in procurement of rice may lead to storage crisis as the next procurement season for the kharif crop starts in October.
The kharif crop procurement estimate stands at a whopping 490 LMT due to record sowing this year as the area under paddy this year is 8 per cent higher than last year’s 402 lakh hectares.
The FCI, the central government’s nodal agency for rice and wheat procurement across the country, already has 833 LMT of foodgrain in its storage stock, which is almost double of its normal storage norm of 411 LMT.
The ministry official quoted above said the government already has stockpiles of rice stock from the previous crop years of 2017-18 and 2018-19.
With procurement continuing until 30 September and a bumper crop of rice expected in the kharif harvest, the procurement this year will be a challenging task for the FCI.
Paddy acreage has seen a record surge in 2019-20 kharif season in Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Chhattisgarh — all major contributors of rice to the central pool.
An increase in rice procurement in the kharif season is also expected due to an increase in the minimum support price by the central government as it will provide more return to the farmers across the country for their produce. This in turn might lead to more sowing and production across the country.
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