Chandigarh, Sep 16 (Inditop.com) Despite the deficient rains in parts of Punjab that has led to a marginal decrease in paddy production in the state this year, Food Corp of India (FCI) officials here say the agency expected record procurement in 2009-10.
“We do not think that there would be any decrease in paddy crop and are hopeful of record procurement this year,” said FCI regional manager Harish Chander.
“This year, the total anticipated paddy procurement is around 137 lakh tonnes, out of which FCI and four other state government agencies will procure 127 lakh tonnes,” Chander told Inditop.
FCI hopes to procure about 26 lakh tonnes, a little less than a fifth of the total paddy yield in Punjab.
“Procuring 20 percent of paddy crop is a big task. FCI procured 20 percent in the late 1970s and in the last few years, this had dropped to just 2-3 percent. So this is a big challenge for us,” said FCI’s Punjab region assistant general manager M.S. Sarang.
In 2007-08 and 2008-09, FCI had procured only 1.45 lakh tonnes and 2.13 lakh tonnes of paddy from Punjab.
Chander said Punjab had a storage capacity of over nearly 19 million tonnes. “There are 123 FCI depots and presently we are utilising only 75 percent of our storage capacity.”
