The Centre has fixed kharif rice procurement target at 485 lakh tonnes for the 2024-25 marketing year starting Oct. and asked states to focus on increasing purchases of coarse cereals.
In the current 2023-24 marketing year (Oct. to Sept.), the government procured 463 lakh tonnes of kharif rice.
Paddy is grown in both kharif and rabi seasons. State-owned Food Corporation of India is the government's nodal agency for procurement and distribution of food grains.
Union Food Secretary on Friday chaired a meeting with State Food Secretaries and FCI to "discuss arrangements for procurement of crops in ensuing Kharif Marketing Season 2024-25", an official statement said.
Various factors impacting procurement such as weather forecast, production estimates, and readiness of states for procurement operations were reviewed during the meeting.
"After deliberations, the estimates for paddy procurement (Kharif crop) during ensuing KMS 2024-25 have been fixed at 485 lakh tonnes in terms of rice compared to procurement of 463 lakh tonnes (Kharif crop) during KMS 2023-24," the statement said.
The Centre has also set a target to procure 19 lakh tonnes of kharif coarse grains/ millets (Shree Anna) during the KMS 2024-25. The target is much higher compared to procurement of 6.6 lakh tonnes during KMS 2022-23 (Kharif crop).
"States/UTs were advised to focus on procurement of millets for diversification of crops and enhanced nutrition in dietary patterns," the food ministry said.
The meeting was attended by Principal Secretary/Secretary (Food) of states/Union Territories as well as officers from FCI, India Meteorological Department and Department of Agriculture.
Several ongoing initiatives of Department of Food and Public Distribution which inter-alia included Supply Chain Optimisation of Public Distribution System, infrastructure improvement in procurement centres, Jan Poshan Kendras and workflow automation for release of food subsidy to the states etc were also discussed in the meeting, the statement said.
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