On the request of Chief Minister Vishnu Dev Sai, Goverment of India gave immediate permission: FCI will take 15 lakh Metric Tons of Parboiled Rice from Chhattisgarh in the Central Pool.

• 23 Dec 2023

Why In News?

On December 21, 2023, the Government of India immediately accepted the request of Chief Minister Vishnu Dev Sai and gave permission to take 15 lakh metric tons of parboiled rice from Chhattisgarh to the Central Pool.

Key Points

• It may be noted that permission to procure parboiled rice from Chhattisgarh was pending for a long time. Chief Minister Vishnu Dev Sai had written a letter on December 21, drawing the attention of Union Food Minister Piyush Goyal towards the situation of paddy procurement at support price and custom milling in the state.
• Accepting the request of the Chief Minister, on the instructions of the Union Food Minister, the Food Department of the Government of India has issued a letter of approval for the procurement of 15 lakh metric tonnes of parboiled rice from Chhattisgarh.
• In his letter, the Chief Minister has requested to increase the quota of rice procurement in the Central Pool from 61 lakh metric tonnes to 74 lakh metric tonnes and also to procure 59 lakh metric tonnes of Arwa and 15 lakh metric tonnes of Unna rice from the state.
• The Chief Minister said that in the Kharif marketing year 2023-24 in Chhattisgarh, as of December 20, 39.63 lakh metric tons of paddy has been procured from 8.68 lakh farmers at support price and more than 3 lakh metric tons of paddy is arriving every day.
• This year, about 130 lakh metric tonnes of paddy is expected to be procured from farmers at support price, custom milling of which will produce 88 lakh metric tonnes of rice. Out of this, about 74 lakh metric tonnes of rice will be procured in the central pool (58 lakh metric tonnes in the Food Corporation of India and 16 lakh tonnes in the Civil Supplies Corporation) and 14 lakh tonnes in the state pool.
• The Chief Minister has also mentioned in the letter that a target has been set to procure 61 lakh tonnes of rice in the central pool for Chhattisgarh state. In the state, due to excessive breakage of some varieties of paddy in milling, Arwa rice is not produced of the prescribed quality and there are difficulties in Arwa milling. Custom milling of such paddy will speed up custom milling.