According to the latest figures released by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) , the Indian government's rice procurement during the 2007/08 rice marketing year improved slightly to cross 13 million MT as on January 1.

The procurement of 13.13 million MT of rice by Jan 1 is however 2 percent lower compared with the same period last year.

India purchased 25.06 million MT of rice last year and the estimated target for this year was estimated to be 27.6 million MT.

India's rice marketing year starts in October and ends in September. The government purchases rice from farmers at state-set intervention prices to run its subsidized rice sale programs.