Ban on export of white rice continues despite record stock in government godowns
12-Aug-2024 12:52 PM
New Delhi. In the last 10 years, there has never been such a huge stock of rice in government godowns as is present at present.
The southwest monsoon is raining well and the paddy production area is ahead of last year. From October, the harvesting and preparation of its new crop and government purchase will start,
due to which the stock of rice in the central pool will increase in a controlled manner in the coming months. This will increase the cost of storage and maintenance.
The Union Agriculture Ministry has set a target of record production of 1363 lakh tonnes of rice this year and in view of the better area, the government hopes that if the weather and monsoon conditions remain favorable in the remaining days of the current month and in September,
then this target of rice production will be easily achieved. This may increase pressure on the market price.
Although two important states contributing rice to the central pool, Punjab and Haryana, have received good rainfall in the first 10 days of the current month, the seasonal cumulative rainfall is still 43 per cent and 23 per cent behind the normal average respectively.
However, due to good irrigation facilities in both these states, there is no possibility of any significant adverse effect on paddy production, but the ground water level may fall.
During the month of July, 45 per cent rain deficit was recorded in Punjab and 43 per cent in Haryana.
Monsoon rainfall has been normal or above normal and is still occurring in other top states contributing rice to the central pool - Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar and Bengal etc.
Additional bonus has been announced to farmers over and above the minimum support price on paddy in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
Additional incentives have also been announced for farmers in Haryana. This is expected to increase rice production and government procurement substantially.
The government expects that the total procurement of rice may again increase to 600 lakh tonnes in the marketing season 2024-25.