Paddy procurement target should be increased from 35 lakh to 50 lakh metric tonnes: Ashok Chowdhury

Patna, September 28: (ABN) Food and Consumer Protection Minister Ashok Chaudhary has demanded the central government to increase the paddy procurement target in the state from 3.5 lakh to 5 million metric tonnes for the kharif marketing season 2026-27. In this regard, he has written a letter to Union Minister Prahlad Joshi and requested him to give an early approval. Ashok Chaudhary said that the production of paddy in Bihar is continuously increasing, but the procurement target is decreasing. In 2023-24, the procurement target was 4.5 lakh tonnes against the production of 133.26 lakh metric tonnes, while the expected production in 2026-27 is 154.39 lakh metric tonnes, but the procurement target has been reduced to 3.5 lakh tonnes. He said that the state's paddy procurement capacity has also been continuously strengthened. In 2025-26, 99.84 percent of the target paddy was procured, which is a proof of the better management capacity of the state. The Minister demanded that the procurement target should be fixed on the basis of the expected production and actual requirement of the state instead of the average procurement of the last three years. According to him, Bihar requires about 48.87 lakh metric tonnes of paddy every year for public distribution system. Raising the target will enable more farmers to sell their produce at the minimum support price (MSP) and make the state more self-sufficient in rice.
He said that on September 1, 2026, in a meeting chaired by the Secretary of the Food Department, the determination of paddy procurement target for the states was considered. Under the current system, the target is fixed on the basis of the average procurement of the last three years, but in the case of Bihar, this method is hindering the setting of the target according to the ever-increasing paddy production in the state and the productivity of the farmers.
He said that Bihar has now got the capacity to buy paddy as per its requirement at the local level. Fixing the procurement target as per the actual requirement of the state will enable Bihar to become more self-sufficient in foodgrains and also reduce the additional transportation cost incurred by procuring rice from other states.