Fortified rice & common rice procurement under uniform rates from ongoing kharif season: Centre

New Delhi, Sept 20: The Centre on Monday issued uniform specifications for procurement of grade A Fortified Rice Kernels (FRK) and common rice for the central pool during the ensuing kharif marketing season.

The communication issues by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution means uniform rates will be applicable for grade A FRK and common rice procurement.

The move, a first in the agriculture sector, comes against the backdrop of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day address this year disclosing his government’s plan for rice fortification across government-run schemes such as PDS and Mid Day Meal programme.

The uniform specifications have been issued for Paddy, Rice and other coarse grains such as Jowar, Bajra, Maize, Ragi, the Ministry said in a statement.

Fortified rice is the process of adding micronutrients such as iron, vitamin and zinc through a special process to increase the nutritional quality of rice.

As per the Ministry statement, one per cent of FRK should be blended with the normal rice stock to ensure nutritional quality.

The uniform specifications also include standards of rice meant for the State for distribution under TPDS and other welfare schemes.

The state governments have been asked to widely circulate the specifications among the farming communities for awareness and to avoid incidents of price rejection.