Govt sets paddy procurement target at 708.64 lakh tons in KMS 2026-27, lower than actuals of last 3 yrs
The Centre has set a paddy procurement target of 708.64 lakh tonne for the upcoming Kharif season. This target is lower than actual procurement levels seen in recent years. Improved rice specifications with tighter broken-grain norms will be implemented from this season. Coarse grain procurement estimates also show an increase for the 2026-27 season. The government continues its push for storage…
On Tuesday, the government announced a paddy procurement target of 708.64 lakh tonnes for the 2026-27 Kharif Marketing Season, which begins on October 1. This target is lower than the actual procurement levels in the past three seasons. The target was determined during a review meeting chaired by Union Food Secretary Sanjeev Chopra, with input from state food secretaries.
The actual procurement for the current Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2026-27 has reached 720.74 lakh tonnes, while the full-season procurement for 2024-25 was 708.85 lakh tonnes and for 2023-24 was 689.56 lakh tonnes. The scaled-down target is due to a decline in the paddy-sown area, which was 414.10 lakh hectares as of August 31.
The actual paddy production in 2025-26 is estimated at 123.92 million tonnes based on the second advance estimate. The meeting also approved the rollout of Improved Rice under PMGKAY and other welfare schemes, with stricter broken-grain norms. The new specifications require no more than 10% broken grains in raw rice, down from 25%, and 5% in parboiled rice, down from 16%.
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