TS purchases paddy to fill Centre’s 46LT rice order

Hyderabad: The Telangana government has completed the purchase of paddy from the farmers to produce 46 lakh tonnes (LT) of rice, which the Centre had agreed to purchase from the state in the Kharif season.

The Centre had initially set the target at 40 LT rice through the Food Corporation of India (FCI), and increased it to 46 LT upon a request from the state government.

The government needed to procure 68.65 lakh tonnes of paddy which when milled produces 46 LT of rice, civil supplies minister Gangula Kamalakar said. “We completed this target on January 3 by setting up 6,868 centres.” Of these, 4,808 centres were closed after the paddy was procured.

He said the government will continue to purchase paddy grown in the Kharif season from farmers, irrespective of whether or not the Centre buys some more rice from the state

"Chief Minister KCR wants us to continue Kharif procurement until the last grain is procured. We expect a few lakhs of tonnes of paddy to come to the market yards in the next few days as paddy harvesting is being done in a few districts," the minister said at a review meeting.

The minister said the government has purchased paddy from 11.9 lakh farmers for Rs 12,761 crore in the Kharif season. Payments worth Rs 10,394 crore were made online to eight lakh farmers. The balance will be paid within a week.

He said the milling of paddy was going on at a brisk pace and 4 lakh tonnes had been completed. He requested the Centre to cooperate with the state during the handing over of rice stocks to the FCI by arranging for transportation and storage space in godowns.

Although the Central stipulations posed some problems during procurement, the government continued paddy procurement keeping in view the interests of farmers, the minister stated.