Agriculture

Paddy Procurement Slips Over a Fifth Amid Weather and Storage Issues

By Vijay C Roy

Between 1 and 28 October, the Food Corporation of India and state agencies that procure on its behalf bought 13 million tonnes of paddy, down from 16.9 million tonnes a year earlier, according to three people familiar with the development. The government has set a procurement target of 71.95 million tonnes for the 2026‑27 Kharif Marketing Season (KMS), essentially unchanged from last year’s 72 million‑tonne target. Punjab remains the top state, with 8.86 million tonnes purchased as of 28 October, followed by Haryana (3.60 million tonnes) and Tamil Nadu (418,987 tonnes). Uttarakhand recorded 81,681 tonnes. All these states had higher procurement levels in the previous season.

For KMS 2026‑27, the minimum support price for common‑grade paddy is ₹2,441 per quintal, up from ₹2,369 per quintal last season, while Grade A paddy is priced at ₹2,461 per quintal. Queries sent to the Department of Food and Public Distribution and the FCI remained unanswered at press time.

Experts say the decline is due to erratic weather and early‑season lifting delays. Harchand Singh Barsat, chairman of the Punjab State Agricultural Marketing Board, noted that uneven rainfall increased crop moisture and delayed harvesting, but that the crop condition is good and procurement is expected to pick up. The government plans to procure about 18 million tonnes from Punjab, making it the largest contributor, with Chhattisgarh (10.9 million tonnes), Odisha (6.4 million tonnes), Uttar Pradesh (6.2 million tonnes), Haryana (5.8 million tonnes) and Telangana (5.7 million tonnes) also expected to contribute significantly.

Lal Chand Kataruchakk, Punjab’s minister of food, civil supplies and consumer affairs, said uneven weather in the northwestern region—Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan—delayed harvest arrivals, but the situation should improve as market arrivals stabilise. The region received 6 % above‑normal rainfall (20 mm versus a normal 18.9 mm) from 1–21 October.

Despite a 3.5 % decline in paddy acreage, the government remains confident of adequate rice supplies for domestic consumption and food‑security programmes such as the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana. Rice stocks in the central pool stood at 37.76 million tonnes as of 1 October 2026, well above the prescribed buffer norm of 10.25 million tonnes.

Tarsem Singh Saini, president of the Federation of All India Rice Millers’ Association, said procurement operations are now progressing smoothly and that a bumper crop is expected to give further momentum to procurement as harvesting and market arrivals pick up.