Telangana speeds up paddy procurement, nearly 2,000 procurement centres opened

Hyderabad: The pace of paddy procurement in Telangana, which began on Saturday, is fast gathering momentum with the commencement of the harvesting season for the ensuing Vaanakalam (Kharif) season. Nearly 2,000 procurement centres have already been opened in the erstwhile districts of Nizamabad and Nalgonda, where farmers have started harvesting their crop. Paddy has been […]

Hyderabad: The pace of paddy procurement in Telangana, which began on Saturday, is fast gathering momentum with the commencement of the harvesting season for the ensuing Vaanakalam (Kharif) season. Nearly 2,000 procurement centres have already been opened in the erstwhile districts of Nizamabad and Nalgonda, where farmers have started harvesting their crop.

Paddy has been cultivated in around 65 lakh acres in the State during this Vaanakalam and as a result, about 1.41 crore tonnes of production is estimated. While more than 41 lakh tonnes paddy is expected to be either sold in open market or used for seed production, the State government is gearing up to procure the remaining one crore tonnes of paddy from the farmers through multiple procurement centres.

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“Initially, we have opened the procurement centres in erstwhile districts of Nizamabad and Nalgonda. More procurement centres will be opened over the next two weeks in a phased manner. Farmers are being intimated and the procurement process will be completed within a month,” a Civil Supplies official told Telangana Today.

Tokens are already being issued to farmers to bring their produce to the procurement centres. Accordingly, officials have kept the required gunny bags, tarpaulin sheets, moisture measuring instruments, paddy cleaners and other necessary equipment and have also prepared survey number wise details of paddy production.

In the wake of about 60 lakh tonnes of paddy stocks pertaining to the previous seasons still lying with the millers, the officials are now planning to store the paddy to be procured this season at intermediary points instead of the rice mills as was the practice earlier. The authorities have been asked to identify necessary storage points for keeping the paddy of this Kharif season.

The decision is also learnt to have been taken to mount pressure on the millers to supply the custom milled rice (CMR) as per scheduled to the Food Corporation of India (FCI). Unless the millers supply the pending CMR to FCI, the paddy allocated for the current marketing season will not be released, the officials said.