NewsWire18, Tuesday, Nov 3 . --State cos' paddy buys so far this season up on yr at 13.7 mln tn --FCI: Paddy mkt arrival so far 14.52 mln tn vs 14.64 mln yr ago . By Soumik Dey NEW DELHI - Food Corp of India and other state-owned agencies' paddy procurement so far this season rose over 7% on year. Market arrivals of the food grain, however, fell nearly 0.8% during this period, government data showed. As on Nov 2, government agencies had procured 13.7 mln tn paddy compared with 12.9 mln tn a year ago, Food Corporation of India data showed. Procurement of the food grain has been stepped by government agencies since Oct 26 when procurement was 5% below last year's levels. The data showed that paddy market arrivals till Nov 2 had declined 0.8% this year to 14.52 mln tn as against 14.64 mln tn during the same time last year. The likely reason for the decline is attributed to lower sowing of the food crop owing to drought situation this year. Punjab and Haryana remain the main contributors to the central food pool in the current season, with some contribution also made by Kerala. Government data showed while paddy arrivals from Punjab had dropped by 360,000 tn over last year, arrivals from Haryana had picked up by 400,000 tn. Normally, rice quantifies to 67% of the paddy after cleaning and processing and procurement as on Nov 2 stood at 9.78 mln tn. FCI's levy rice procurement from states stood at 22,485 tn, compared with 36,146 tn procured in the same period last year. Levy rice is distributed through the government's public distribution system at subsidised rates. India's total kharif paddy sowing as on Oct 22 stood at 32.9 mln ha, down 15.6% on year, government data showed. Paddy coverage was reported lower in Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. Sowing operations were hampered as 278 of 626 districts in the country have been drought hit with overall southwest monsoon rains 23% below normal. India produced around 99.15 mln tn rice in the crop year ended June. End . Edited by Madhumita Sen Choudhury . NewsWire18 Tel +91 (11) 2335-1230 Send comments to feedback@newswire18.com . Copyright NewsWire18 Pvt. Ltd. 2007. All rights reserved. Category : C/AGR C/MAR C/RIC C/GRA C/TOP G/AGR G/TRA R/ASI R/IN R/SHA