Hyderabad: Paddy production in Telangana has exceeded the expectations by a huge margin during the rabi season.
According to fresh estimates, the production touched 42.44 lakh metric tonnes against expected 37 LMT.
More than 25.95 LMT has been purchased till now by the government, 18.65 LMTs more than what it bought in the last rabi season. Civil supplies department has set up more procurement centres to meet the demand.
Civil supplies commissioner C.V. Anand directed officials to ensure minimum support price (MSP) for farmers with continuous monitoring at all market yards.
In 2015-16 rabi season only 7,28,829 metric tonnes of paddy was purchased from 1,51,950 farmers through 1,262 purchase centres. Mr Anand held a meeting with officials on Monday to review paddy procurement.
Mr Anand said, “For purchasing the expected 37 lakh metric tonnes of paddy, 9.25 crores of gunny bags were kept available. Of these, 9.05 crore bags are new. The department already has stock of 20 lakh bags with it. The production target has now been revised to 42.44 LMTs. For this, 10.61 lakh more gunny bags would be required. To meet the demand, bags are stocked at district godowns. More will be made available before the allotted bags are used. Due to lack of co-ordination some problems developed in some places of Siddipet, Sangareddy, Jagitial which were solved immediately.”
