India rice purchase at record 27.9 mln T as on Sept 24

MUMBAI, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Indian government has procured a record 27.9 million tonnes of rice from farmers during the crop year ending this month, it said in a statement on Friday.

The procurement as on Sept 24 was 11.1 percent higher than 25.11 million tonnes purchased a year-ago, it said. The government buys foodgrains from farmers to run various welfare programmes.

Total rice stock is estimated at 6.45 million tonnes as on Oct 1, against the buffer norm of 5.2 million tonnes, the government said.

India is likely to have produced a record 96.43 million tonnes of rice during 2007/08.

The government estimated total wheat stock to be 6 million tonnes as on Apr 1, 2009, 50 percent higher than the buffer requirement of 4 million tonnes. (Reporting by Debiprasad Nayak, editing by Ramya Venugopal)