Not so surprisingly, the announcement was not made by the Union Minister officially, but a joint secretary-rank officer from Department of Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution was chosen to ‘share’ the information with the media in Delhi. This briefing comes in the wake of Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao’s letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In the informal interaction, the official maintained that there were adequate stocks of rice and wheat across the country. All the States were already told to encourage farmers to cultivate alternative crops instead of paddy and wheat. He also suggested that farmers should focus on producing of oilseeds and pulses which are largely being imported in India.

“As on October 11 this year, the Food Corporation of India (FCI) has parboiled rice stock of 46.28 lakh tonnes and is yet to receive 32.73 lakh tonnes. Thus, the total stock of parboiled rice would be about 79 lakh tonnes at the end of Kharif. It would take four years to liquidate the available stock,” he pointed out. Due to increased production in parboiled rice-consuming States, its movement from other States have been decreased which in turn consumed available godown space.

On the demand to allow rice exports, the official informed that a decision in this regard would be taken after considering the domestic needs. However, there would be restrictions on the quantity and quality of rice that would be allowed for exports.