Procurement of rice by the government in the new marketing season started on Oct 1, but been moving at a slow pace so far. The Centre has procured nearly 730,000 tn of rice in the 2017-18 marketing year (Oct-Sep) at a minimum support price of 1,550 rupees per 100 kg. In the first week of the marketing season last year, the government had procured over 1 mln tn of rice. So far, the highest procurement of rice, of 573,000 tn, has been in Haryana, while the procurement in Punjab is at 159,000 tn.