Telangana sets new record in paddy procurement

Telangana government spent a massive Rs 1.07 lakh crore and procured 6.06 crore tonnes of paddy in the last eight years.

Hyderabad: Providing much-needed support to farmers in the State, the Telangana government spent a massive Rs 1.07 lakh crore and procured 6.06 crore tonnes of paddy in the last eight years. During 2020-21, the State government had set a new record by procuring a total 1.41 crore tonnes of paddy cultivated over both Vaanakalam (Kharif) and Yasangi (Rabi) seasons.

Soon after the State formation, Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao took various initiatives including construction of irrigation projects, providing Rythu Bandhu financial assistance, Rythu Bima, uninterrupted free power supply and other schemes to support the agricultural sector. As a result, the gross cultivation area has shot up to 2.3 crore acres in 2021-22 against 1.34 crore acres in 2014. Similarly, the gross paddy production escalated from 68 lakh tonnes in 2014-15 to a whopping 2.49 crore tonnes in 2021-22.

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Accordingly, the State government extended all support to farmers by procuring maximum quantity of paddy by opening more than 6,000 paddy procurement centres across the State. After procuring paddy at Minimum Support Price, arrangements have been made to deposit the amount directly into the bank accounts of farmers within a week.

Following the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown in 2020-21, Telangana became the only State to purchase entire paddy produced by farmers. The State government ensured that farmers do not suffer due to lack of rumenerative price for their paddy. Hence, the paddy procurement went up from 24.3 lakh tonnes in 2014-15 to 1.2 crore tonnes in 2021-22.

During the Vaanakalam (Kharif) marketing season this year, the State government initiated efforts to purchase nearly one crore tonnes of paddy from farmers. As on Wednesday, nearly 33.5 lakh tonnes of paddy worth Rs 6,892 crore have been procured through 6,787 centres.

Meanwhile, the Telangana government is getting the paddy milled and supplying six kg rice to each member of the family holding a ration card without any restriction on the number of people in a family. Through around 90.01 lakh ration cards, about 2.83 crore people of the State are benefiting. Of the total ration cards, around 54.37 lakh ration cards are issued by the Centre under Anthyodaya Anna Yojana and another 35.64 lakh ration cards issued by the State government. The Central government supplies only 5 kg rice per person upto four members in a family. To ensure distribution of equal quantity of rice to all ration card holders, the State government compensates for the remaining quantity of rice.