For the first time in decades, millers in Telangana are gearing up for purchasing custom mill the rabi paddy and deliver fortified raw rice to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) as against the practice of handing over parboiled rice.
After bitter war of words over the last few rabi seasons over the procurement of parboiled rice from the State, the Centre has asserted that it will buy only raw rice and not the parboiled rice.
Rabi season
This, however, has put millers in a quandary as the paddy that goes for milling in the rabi is brittle and yields less rice than what they get in the kharif season.
Because the grain is exposed to punishing temperatures of March and April, the grain gets brittle and broken while milling. In order to reduce the losses, the millers used to boil the paddy and hand it over to the FCI on behalf of the State Government.
“We get only 50 per cent of the output in the form of raw rice. We lose about ₹300 on a quintal and it is not viable,” a rice miller from Nalgonda told businessline.
When they faced a similar situation last year, the State government appointed a high-level committee to ascertain the actual loss that millers suffer. The idea was to factor in the losses and offer compensation to the millers accordingly.
“The team did visit several mills but we don’t know what happened after that. We are seeing arrivals in large quantities and milling season is expected to start from May 1,” a functionary of the rice millers’ association said.
Farmers are a worried lot because millers might deduct a sum of ₹300 a quintal to make up for their losses.
“There is a demand for 35-40 lakh tonnes of parboiled rice in the country. There is a huge demand for it abroad too. The government should continue to procure parboiled rice to meet the demand,” S Malla Reddy, a leader of All-India Kisan Sabha, said.
PM Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana
The Centre is lifting paddy heavily to support its flagship PMGKAY (PM Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana). “Seeing a good demand for the commodity, farmers went for record sowing in the season. Now they are worried because they will be forced to sell at a discount,” he said.
In the kharif season, the State procured 64 lakh tonnes of paddy, costing ₹13,750 crore.
The State registered a record area for paddy in the rabi as farmers grew the crop in 23 lakh hectares as against the season normal of 13.57 lakh hectares. This makes Telangana the biggest paddy growing State in the country.