Telangana’s paddy procurement falls short despite record harvest

Despite achieving a record paddy production of over 1.5 crore metric tonnes, the paddy procurement realisation in the State has fallen short of projections. With an initial target of purchasing over 91 lakh metric tonnes, the actual procurement by the civil supplies corporation has amounted to just 46 lakh metric tonnes-only half of the anticipated target.

The decisive role played by private traders, who have been reaching out to farmers with a liberal approach regarding moisture content, has impacted the civil supplies corporation’s Minimum Support Price (MSP) operations. This liberal attitude of private traders has diverted a large portion of the paddy to the neighbouring states, which otherwise would have been procured by the civil supplies corporation.

The paddy procurement process is expected to continue for another three weeks to accommodate the late arrivals in some districts. It is anticipated that an additional 8 to 10 lakh metric tonnes may be procured by the Sankranti season, including nearly 2 lakh tonnes of Grade-A paddy. The civil supplies corporation has already purchased over 18 lakh metric tonnes of Grade-A paddy.

Efforts are underway to procure more paddy to meet the state’s fine rice requirement, which includes provisions under the Public Distribution System (PDS) and supplies to hostels and welfare institutions. By all means the major procurement operations are nearing completion, while the civil supplies corporation has so far procured paddy worth Rs 10,675 crore during the Kharif marketing season of 2024, with Rs 9,890 crore already paid to farmers.

Regarding the Rs 500 per quintal bonus offered by the administration, Rs 530 crore has already been disbursed to the farmers however, an additional Rs 373 crore is yet to be released.

This article was been republished from The Telangana Today.