The government has set a target to buy 463.49 lt of rice from the kharif-grown crop in 2025-26 marketing season (October-September) | Photo Credit: iStockphoto
The rice marketing season begins from October, and the procurement period varies from State to State depending on the cropping pattern . But, due to the early arrival of the paddy this year, the Centre allowed procuring agencies in Punjab and Haryana to begin purchase from mid-September.
Punjab, which has been the top rice contributor to the Central Pool stock, purchased 18.46 lt until October 16, which is over three times higher than 5.44 lt a year ago, and Haryana bought 54 per cent more rice at 23.08 lt against 15.03 lt a year ago, official data show. Purchase in Tamil Nadu more than doubled to 5.95 lt from 2.32 lt a year ago.
Buys may end earlier
The total rice purchased for the Central Poll stands at 48.47 lt as of October 16, against 22.90 lt in the year-ago period. The rice purchase in Uttarakhand, too, is higher at 79,570 tonnes from 1,759 tonnes year-ago.
The government has set a target to buy 463.49 lt of rice from the kharif-grown crop in 2025-26 marketing season (October-September), whereas the actual procurement in 2024-25 was 545.22 lt for 2023-24.
Though rice procurement period for Haryana is up to November 15 and for Punjab is November 30, experts said the purchases may end earlier than schedule due to early harvest of the crop. However, Punjab farmers are complaining about not receiving the minimum support price (MSP) as commission agents are asking them to dry the paddy due to higher than permissible moisture content.
The government aims to buy 36 lt from Haryana and 116 lt from Punjab this year. The actual purchase was 36.17 lt in Haryana and 116.13 lt in Punjab in the 2024-25 season.
Procurement in other States
Officials also said there were protests last year in Punjab as commission agents stopped the operation due to transition to a fixed rate (at per quintal basis) fee from per cent basis as the Centre realised that its provisioning has been rising with increase in MSP every year when it was paying 2 per cent commission to the agents.
Procurement in Tamil Nadu also started from September 1. It will start from November 1 in Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh, all key contributors to the Central Pool stock, managed by the Food Corporation of India.
The Agriculture Ministry is yet to release the crop estimate of kharif season. Paddy acreage this kharif season, was higher at record 441.58 lakh hectares (lh) as on October 3 from 435.68 lh year-ago.
Published on October 17, 2025
