The paddy procurement in Telangana is moving at a slow pace. According to the latest figures, the State has so far procured 60 lakh tonnes (lt) of paddy against a target of one crore tonnes for the kharif harvesting season.
The total value of the paddy procured from about 10 lakh farmers stands at ₹12,500 crore. “We have so far credited ₹11,000 crore,” Civil Supplies Minister Gangula Kamalakar said.
Around the same time last year, the State had procured 65 lt of paddy.
The Civil Supplies Department, which opened 7,011 procurement centres in different parts of the State, has closed down 4,500 centres.
Nizamabad district topped the list with procurement of 6 lakh tonnes, followed by Kamareddy at 5 lakh tonnes and Nalgonda at 4 lakh tonnes.
Farmers’ unions, however, said that there was no reason to celebrate the numbers as yet as the government had closed down a good number of procurement centres.
The farmers grew paddy in a record 26.30 lakh hectares in the kharif season as against the season normal of 17 lh. “They said they will procure 1 crore tonnes. But they have so far procured only 59 lakh tonnes, leaving a huge gap between the target and the actual volumes achieved,” a farmers’ union leader said.
T Sagar, Secretary of Telangana Rythu Sangham, said that the State government had closed down majority of the procurement centres, signalling the closing phase of procurement. “We expect procurement of another 5 lt,” he said.
Demand
Unlike rabi rice, which is converted into parboiled rice to reduce the losses in milling, the kharif rice has got some good demand from the millers as the fine varieties grown in the season is sought after by the consumers. The farmers depend on Central procurement for rabi rice during the harvest season as it has no takers in the two Telugu States.