The Centre has set a target of procuring 30 million tonnes of rice for 2014-15 marketing year starting October, and directed state governments to open adequate number of purchasing centers.
Food Corporation of India (FCI), the nodal agency for foodgrain procurement and distribution, has purchased 26.64 million tonnes (MT) so far in 2013-14 marketing year (October- September). Annual procurement target for this year is 32 MT.
Procurement stood at a record 35.06 MT in 2011-12.
"The procurement target for kharif 2014-15 has been finalised as 30 million tonnes," an official statement said.
Despite deficit monsoon and delayed sowing, the rice procurement target exceeds the actual procurement of last year's kharif crop, it added.
The rice procurement target was fixed at the meeting of the state food secretaries chaired by Union Food Secretary, Sudhir Kumar.
The meeting also reviewed arrangements for procurement of paddy and coarse grains for 2014-15.
To ensure smooth procurement operation, the states have been asked to open adequate purchase centers and deploy sufficient manpower.
They have also been advised to make arrangements to publicise about minimum support price (MSP) as well as about procurement centers both in print and audio-visual media and pamphlets in local languages.
On storage front, the state governments have also been asked to give details of storage plan for the ensuing kharif marketing season and should have an action plan to meet the deficit in storage requirement, it said.
Regarding packaging material, states were requested to place indents for purchase of jute bags in time to avoid last minute shortage of packaging material.
States have also been asked to evolve an online procurement monitoring system (OPMS) for reporting and monitoring of procurement operations for wheat, paddy and coarse grains in the country on a daily basis.
They have been asked to ensure that all state agencies feed the data of procurement into the system at revenue district level, the statement added.
