Bumper paddy harvest to come with serious challenges for Telangana farmers

Telangana is poised for a record paddy harvest thanks to a favourable monsoon, but farmers face mounting challenges. Escalating input costs, urea shortages, and a nationwide rice glut have driven prices below MSP, threatening profits.

Hyderabad: Driven by a favourable monsoon, Telangana is projected to achieve a record paddy production this year, surpassing previous highs. But this is expected to come with multiple challenges for the state’s farmers.

The bumper crop will be a double-edged sword hanging over the state as well. Farmers claim they do not have much to cheer about. They have already been hit by a steep escalation in input and cultivation costs.

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Urea purchases have cost them heavily. The bumper crop is a double-edged sword. While it would add to the state’s farm output, it is likely to pass on the pain to small farmers. Seeds, fertilisers, and labour costs have soared, eating into already slim profits. Early shortages of urea forced many to delay sowing or pay extra for fixes, slashing yields by up to 15% in spots.

A flood of rice nationwide has crashed market prices below the government’s minimum support price. The Food Corporation of India (FCI) is already sitting on 70-80 million tonnes of surplus, even selling some to ethanol makers at a loss—Rs 22 per kg against Rs 37-39 procurement costs. This situation is expected to delay payments and clog storage, hitting
Telangana hard.

Globally, rice woes add fuel to the fire.

Telangana’s projected output is 148 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) harvest of paddy, but the Centre’s nod for procurement is just 53.73 LMT of paddy (36 LMT rice). To shield farmers, the state wants 80 LMT procured. The state has pleaded for steps to raise the procurement cap to 80 LMT paddy to lock in minimum support price (MSP) and curb low-price sales.

It has also requested additional railway rakes to move the backlog of custom-milled rice, besides extending deadlines and pushing Rabi 2024-25 delivery from October 31 to January 31, 2026. The state has urged the Centre to permit both raw and parboiled deliveries. These steps are expected to ease the markets that have already been rocked by FCI’s cheap sales scheme.