Farmers in trouble as paddy procurement delays in Karimnagar

To avoid heavy losses, farmers are selling the crop to middlemen and rice millers at lower prices

Karimnagar: A delay in procurement of paddy is landing farmers in the erstwhile Karimnagar district in trouble. The ongoing rainfall being due to the cyclone effect has worsened the situation further.

To avoid heavy losses, farmers are selling the crop to middlemen and rice millers at lower prices. Though the procurement began in October, it was delayed due to the assembly elections, farmers pointed out, adding that though 70 percent of the procurement has been done and the procured paddy shifted to rice mills, the remaining was yet to be procured.

---

Paddy was cultivated in 9.60 lakh acres across the erstwhile Karimnagar district in the Vanakalam season and harvesting of the crop started in the last week of October. In order to procure the crop, 1,281 paddy procurement centres were established by IKP, PACS, MEPMA, DCMS and others. While 402 PPCs were set up in Jagtial, 324 centres were established in Karimnagar followed by Peddapally with 307 centres and Rajanna-Sircilla with 248 centres.

Though procurement centres were set up at the end of October, the process was delayed since the campaign picked up momentum. So far, 1.73 lakh metric tons of crop was procured in Karimnagar. In 2022, the same time had seen procurement of 2.25 lakh metric tons.

In Jagtial, 1.58 lakh metric tons was procured, while 1.70 lakh metric tons were procured in Rajanna-Sircilla. Peddapalli saw procurement of 1.07 lakh metric tons. This would make up to about 70 percent of the total harvested paddy, farmers say that the rest of the paddy has reached the paddy procurement centres, but not yet procured.

Vexed over delay in procurement, farmers are selling the crop to middlemen and rice millers at lesser price despite the officials’ promise to procure the entire crop. Though the government was getting crop from farmers by providing a minimum support price of Rs.2,203 for fine variety and Rs.2,183 for normal variety paddy, middlemen are not providing MSP.