Along with this, the price of non-basmati rice has also increased. According to some market experts, first of all, the yield of Kharif crops has decreased. Along with this, a government food security scheme has been stopped and the process of exporting rice to Nepal has been made completely duty free. Incidentally, the Kharif crop production in 2021-22 was around 111.76 million tonnes. There the production in 2022-23 is pegged at 104.99 million tonnes. Which is 6.77 million tonnes less than last year. Another major reason is withdrawal of a central government scheme related to food security. According to an expert, the ‘Pradhan Mantri Kalyan Anna Yojana’ scheme was launched during the Covid outbreak. But it was discontinued on 31 December 2022. It also played an important role behind the rise in rice prices.
Incidentally, experts have already expressed fear that the risk of recession will increase in the new year. Even the International Monetary Fund has expressed concern about this very recently. In that situation, the experts are not relieved about the increase in the price of rice and the increase in the price of palm oil at the same time. Although the central government has repeatedly claimed that the impact of the external recession on the Indian economy will not cause any serious damage to the domestic economy.