Who eats parboiled rice? Only people in Odisha and Telangana, Union food minister Piyush Goyal appeared to suggest on Friday.

Asked by MPs from Odisha and Telangana why the Centre had stopped procuring parboiled rice from their states, Goyal told the Rajya Sabha: “The situation is that we can provide such rice which is eaten by people in other states.”

He added: “We cannot force any particular type of rice on people. The rice that is consumed in other states can be procured by FCI (Food Corporation of India).”

But if the minister was suggesting people in the rest of the country did not eat parboiled rice — rice partially boiled in the husk — perhaps he should look at Bengal.

In Bengal, 90 per cent of the 155 lakh tonnes of rice consumed is parboiled rice.

“While people in northern India prefer white rice, people in Bengal eat parboiled rice. Only on occasions like the Pujas is white rice used in Bengal,” an official in the Bengal agriculture department said.

In neighbouring Bihar, too, parboiled rice is popular. Kishore Jaiswal, convener of the Munger-based Pragatisheel Krishi Manch — an organisation of progressive farmers in Bihar — said: “Parboiled or usna rice is widely consumed across Bihar. Nowadays it fetches a little more price than un-boiled (white) or arwa rice.”

He said parboiled rice was easier to digest and had lower sugar content.

Goyal said the Centre procured rice according to a memorandum of understanding signed with the states, which allows the FCI the option of specifying the type of rice — white or parboiled — that it would procure.

Goyal did not explain why the Centre used to procure parboiled rice before.

Prasanna Acharya, Biju Janata Dal leader in the Rajya Sabha, and Telangana Rashtra Samiti member K. Keshava Rao had questioned the Centre about its directives to the FCI not to procure parboiled rice from their respective states. They had demanded withdrawal of the order.

Acharya said this year’s surplus parboiled rice in Odisha — the amount left over after meeting the requirements of the state’s own welfare schemes — amounted to about 28 lakh tonnes.

“Through the FCI, we were supplying our surplus quantity of rice. But, unfortunately, adding to the problems of farmers of Odisha, Telangana and other states, this time, the central government has given a directive that not a single grain of parboiled rice will be procured from our state,” Acharya said during Zero Hour.

“When the entire country is in turmoil and farmers are doing agitations for their problems, you are adding another problem for the farmers. If you are not going to procure parboiled rice, should we throw all our surplus parboiled rice into the Bay of Bengal?”

Acharya said the Union food ministry had promised that all surplus parboiled rice from Odisha would be procured by the FCI, but now the Centre had gone back on its word.

During Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha, Rao asked whether the Centre planned to procure the entire surplus rice, irrespective of type, from Telangana as it had promised.

Additional reporting by Dev Raj from Patna and our Bengal bureau