Hyderabad: The Telangana government, which has recently kick-started paddy procurement in the State, is all set to increase the number of paddy procurement centres for the ongoing Yasangi (Rabi) season in the next couple of days. currently, officials are operating 650 centres across the State, and their numbers will increase to 6,575 over the next few days.
The government aims at procuring about 80 lakh tonnes of paddy this Yasangi, taking the total paddy purchases during the 2020-21 agriculture year to a whopping 1.28 crore tonnes. Nearly 48.89 lakh tonnes of paddy was purchased from over 11 lakh farmers during Vaanakalam 2020-21.
Paddy was cultivated in around 52.78 lakh acres then against this Yasangi’s 68.14 lakh acres. The total paddy yield is estimated to be around 1.38 crore tonnes, including 1.17 crore tonnes of coarse variety and 21 lakh tonnes of fine variety. Through the Telangana State Civil Supplies Corporation (TSCSC), the State government is planning to procure about 80 lakh tonnes, which will be supplied to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) towards the Public Distribution System (PDS).
Millers in Telangana are likely to purchase around 20 lakh tonnes, and the seed companies would buy another 10 lakh tonnes for seed processing. The rest is expected to be purchased by millers from other States.
Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao decided to purchase the entire paddy crop for the third consecutive season since the lockdown during Yasangi 2019-20 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Officials made all the arrangements to procure paddy as per Covid-19 guidelines to ensure that there is no overcrowding at the centres.
“Adequate measures are being taken to ensure that farmers need not wait at procurement centres. They are being given tokens to bring their crop on a specific date and time. As per the Central government’s restrictions, paddy with moisture content less than 17 per cent will only be purchased,” TSCSC Corporation Chairman Mareddy Srinivas Reddy told ‘Telangana Today’.
Further, farmers have also been asked to bring paddy without husk and discoloured or infested grains. As per the Chief Minister’s directions, the officials made arrangements to give Rs 20,000-crore bank guarantee to enable the corporation to purchase the paddy and make payments to farmers at the earliest. The officials also arranged for around 20 crore gunny bags.
Fulfilling numbers
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- Civil Supplies Corporation aims at achieving procurement target of 1.28 crore tonnes of paddy this agri year
- It procured 48.89 lakh tonnes during 2020-21 Vaanakalam
- Sets a target for another 80 lakh tonnes this Yasangi
- Paddy cultivated in 68.14 lakh acres
- Expected yield: 1.38 crore tonnes
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