New Delhi (PTI): The government has procured 143.27 lakh tonnes of rice so far in this year, which is 21 per cent more than what it had bought during the corresponding period last season.

Rice procurement stood at 118.09 lakh tonnes in the year-ago period, a government official said.

Though the procurement target for a year is 276 lakh tonnes, the government is confident of buying more rice in 2008-09 season (October-September) owing to good remunerative price to farmers, he said.

The Centre had last year purchased a record 284.93 lakh tonnes of rice in the entire season.

The government, which did not want to take any chance because of higher requirement on account of strategic reserve, announced a bonus of Rs 50 a quintal over and above the paddy minimum support prices of Rs 850 a quintal for common variety and Rs 880 a quintal for higher grade to buy higher quantity.

The government has kept 15 lakh tonnes of rice in the strategic reserve last year and targets the same quantity this year as well for the reserve.

In fact, the MSPs announced for this season was implemented in the last three months of 2007-08 to increase government buffer and farmers were agitated when they realised that they were getting the same price in 2008-09 after new season began from October 1.

Meanwhile, rice procurement in Punjab and Haryana has nearly completed with very little arrival of paddy in the mandis. But the purchases are in full swing in Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Orissa.