Helped by an all-time high harvest, the Centre's rice procurement is moving to hit a record this year with 18 per cent increase till date over a year ago.

The rice purchases of the Centre has gone up by 18 per cent to 248.98 lakh tonnes as till on Tuesday, compared with 210.43 lakh tonnes in the year-ago period, according to data available with Food Corporation of India, which is government's nodal agency for procurement and distribution of the foodgrain.

If the purchases go on at this speed, FCI may procure another bumper amount of rice as production is estimated to be 989 lakh tonnes this year, a government official said.

The agency had procured a record 284.93 lakh tonnes of rice in 2007-08 (October-September).

Of nearly 250 lakh tonnes purchased, 76.31 lakh tonnes have been received as levy rice, the official said.

Under decentralised procurement, states fix a quantity as levy rice from whatever a miller purchases for its own consumption.

Punjab continues to lead the states with a contribution of over 84 lakh tonnes to the central pool, up by 7 lakh tonnes from last year, while Haryana has faltered as it has contributed 14.05 tonnes as on March 17, compared to 15.63 lakh tonnes in the year-ago period.

Other states which have procured significant quantities of rice include Andhra Pradesh (44.26 lakh tonnes), Uttar Pradesh (34.78 lakh tonnes), Chhattisgarh (25.22 lakh tonnes) and Orissa (16.35 lakh tonnes).