ECONOMIC GOVERNANCE Management of food in India has three basic objectives: procurement of foodgrains from farmers at remunerative prices, distribution of foodgrains to consumers, and maintenance of food buffers for food security and price stability. The nodal agency responsible for the procurement and distribution of foodgrains is the Food Corporation of India (FCI). Rice procurement by the FCI fell to 250.8 lakh tonne for the 2006-07 period from 276.6 lakh tonne for the 2005-06 period. The procurement of foodgrains by the FCI remains higher is states such as Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. These four states accounted for 68.8 per cent of rice procured for the Central pool in 2005-06 and 69.7 per cent in 2006-07. In some major rice producing states, however, procurement by the state agencies was significantly poor. The ratio of procurement to production was significantly lower in the states of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Jharkhand. There is a need to strengthen the procurement machinery in these states. Procurement of rice was seen increasing from 2005-06 to 2006-07 only in three states. In Andhra Pradesh, rice procurement went up from 49.7 lakh tonne to 53.3 lakh tonne. In the same period, Orissa saw rice procurement rise from 17.9 lakh tonne to 19.9 lakh tonne, while that for Tamil Nadu went up from 9.3 lakh tonne to 10.8 lakh tonne.