Hyderabad: The Telangana State Civil Supplies Corporation procured 3.93 crore metric tonnes of paddy worth Rs.68,000 crore at minimum support price from 2014-15 to 2020-21 Vaanakalam, Corporation Chairmanrsaid on Thursday.
He said Telangana was now a role model for the entire country in paddy cultivation and this was possible only because of the vision and commitment of Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao. Under the leadership of Chandrashekhar Rao, Telangana achieved significant progress in paddy procurement.
Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, he said the 2020-21 Vaanakalam saw 1.5 crore metric tonnes of paddy yield and 1.32 crore metric tonnes yield was expected in Yasangi. The two seasons put together would register 2.37 crore metric tonnes of paddy yield this time.
In Vaanakalam, the corporation procured 48.85 lakh metric tonnes of paddy and plans have been drawn to procure 80 lakh to 90 lakh paddy in Yasangi. In all, 1.28 crore metric tonnes of paddy would be procured in the two seasons, he said.
Reddy said a decision was also taken to procure paddy from 6,575 procurement centres in the State during Yasangi. Depending on the requirement, more procurement centres would be opened.
As many as 179 centres had already started procurement in Nizamabad, Kamareddy, Khammam and Suryapet. In 2019-20, the corporation procured 64.17 lakh metric tonnes of paddy through 6500 centres during Yasangi. Following instructions from the Chief Minister, necessary steps were being taken to ensure that farmers sell paddy at the procurement centres in a hassle-free manner without waiting for their turn.
Despite difficulties, the Chief Minister sanctioned Rs.20,000 crore for procurement of paddy for the welfare of farmers. The procurement would be carried out adhering to Covid-19 safety protocols and instructions in this regard were also given to officials concerned.
Reddy advised farmers to cultivate crops that had market demand. The Food Corporation of India (FCI) would not be in a position to purchase boiled rice in future and in Yasangi too, it did not initially evince interest to purchase boiled rice.
From Telangana, boiled rice used to be transported to Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Karnataka, Kerala and West Bengal. Since these States were getting their required crop, the FCI is insisting on raw rice only and clarified that it won’t accept boiled rice.
Taking all these aspects into consideration, the farmers should go for the crops that are in demand in the market, he said.
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