The government has also had to ramp up rice imports as local production fell due to recurrent floods and natural disasters.
So far this fiscal year, 11.5 lakh tonnes of food, including 7.09 lakh tonnes of rice, have been imported. Officials expect rice imports to reach 9 lakh tonnes in the next fiscal year.
By comparison, the government did not import any rice during the same period last year but brought in 7.84 lakh tonnes of wheat.