Telangana paddy crisis deepens: Protests erupt in several districts over procurement delays

Despite Telangana achieving its highest-ever paddy yield in Kharif 2025, farmers across key districts are protesting against severe delays in government procurement. Unseasonal rains have damaged crops and procurement centres are rejecting loads due to strict moisture norms. Civil Supplies Corporation operations remain sluggish, with purchases falling short of targets.

Hyderabad: In a stark contrast to Telangana’s record-breaking Kharif 2025 paddy harvest of 148.03 lakh tonnes, its highest grain yield so far, farmers across major producing districts are up in arms.

Protests have turned severe in Nalgonda, Karimnagar, Kamareddy and Nizamabad, where thousands of farmers are blockading roads, staging sit-ins, and even falling at the feet of police in desperation over crippling delays in government paddy procurement.

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The protests echoed even in the State capital with farmers taking out rallies in the Jubilee Hills Assembly constituency on Sunday irking the State government, only to be quelled by the police.

The unrest, fuelled by unseasonal rains that have wreaked havoc on standing crops and stocks moved to the purchase centres assumed serious proportions with the procurement system buckling under moisture woes, despite the State planning 8,342 purchase centres.

In Kamareddy, hundreds of farmers from villages like Domakonda and Pitlam converged on procurement centres, spilling onto national highways with tractors and placards.

“We have waited days in the mud, only to be turned away because our paddy is ‘too wet’. How can we survive this betrayal after six months of toil?” lamented K. Ramulu, a farmer from Yelkurthi mandal.

Similar scenes unfolded in Nizamabad, where the local elected representatives accused the system of “fraud at every stage”, from moisture testing to payments, prompting clashes outside Civil Supplies Corporation (CSC) outlets.

In Karimnagar and Nalgonda, protests escalated into overnight dharnas, with women and children joining the demonstrations obstructing key routes like the highways. After torrential rains that battered the State through late October, harvested stocks were left soaked extensively as procurement kicked off. Overnight downpours in Karimnagar drenched hundreds of quintals at the harvest points.

Across Telangana, prolonged monsoon has affected yields by up to 20% in vulnerable pockets, with paddy bearing the brunt amid flooded fields and pest surges.

Even with the government’s pledge of 80 lakh tonnes procurement worth Rs 22,000-23,000 crore at MSP rates (Rs 2,389 per quintal for Grade A), CSC operations remain far from hassle-free. Strict moisture norms, capped at 17% by central guidelines, have rejected loads, forcing farmers into long queues and arbitrary rejections.

Officials have introduced automatic dryers at centers to mitigate this, but their reach remains limited. Though the payment of bonus was not timely, the prospect of it attracting paddy from the neighbouring States depriving local farmers of their due.