Rice Price Hikes: Rice is one of the most consumed cereals in the world. If we talk about it, rice is consumed the most in China. According to a statistic, China consumes 150 million metric tons of rice annually. India is second in this case. 118 million metric tons of rice is consumed in India.
These figures are for the year 2023-24. These days, there is a huge jump in the prices of rice in India. The prices of rice have increased a lot in the last one month. Seeing the rising prices of rice, the government is now thinking of taking some big steps for this. Let us know what is the government’s planning regarding this.
What is the government’s planning?
The central government is planning to control the inflation of rice. In the year 2024-25, the government will now store 18 million tonnes of rice additionally. For this, a round of talks has also started between the government and the stakeholders. So that the increased retail price of rice can be reduced. If we talk about the work, the stock of rice in the country is currently available in sufficient quantity. In India, the stock of rice has increased by 21.8 percent to 50.46 million tonnes on June 1.
If we talk about 1 year ago, it was 41.42 million tonnes. Talking about the stock of rice, there has been an increase of 18 percent this year compared to last year. The government is in talks with rice mill owners and some exporters. Exporters say that many state governments in the country are buying rice at Rs 31 per kilogram. In such a situation, it is not right for the government to expect mill owners to sell rice at the rate of Rs 30 to 35 per kilogram.
Purchased at more than MSP
Under the National Food Security Act, the government needs 40 to 41 million tons of rice annually for the welfare schemes run by the government in India. Because there are around 81 crore ration card holders in the country who are given 5 kg of rice free every month by the government.
After the formation of the BJP government in Chhattisgarh, paddy purchase in the state has been done at Rs 3,100 per quintal. Now the BJP has formed the government in Odisha. There is a demand to implement the same rate there too. Let us tell you that the MSP on rice has been fixed at Rs 2185 per quintal by the Central Government. But the purchase is being done at a higher rate than this.