Telangana emerges as ‘rice bowl’ of India

Naveen S Garewal

Tribune News Service

Hyderabad, June 15

Telangana has achieved a record procurement of 1.12 crore tons of paddy, making it the ‘rice bowl’ of the country. Announcing this on Monday, the Telangana State Civil Supplies Corporation Chairman Mareddy Srinivas Reddy said a record 47 lakh tons procurement in Vaanakalam (Kharif crop) and 65 lakh tons in Yasangi (Rabi crop) during 2019-20 had set new records for the state.

He said the state had come a long way from the mere 24 lakh tons of paddy procurements for both seasons in 2014-15. “Within six years of the formation of the state, a record 367 per cent increase was witnessed in the procurement of paddy. Compared to last Yasangi, procurement this year increased by 76 per cent (24 lakh tons),” he said.

He said the Yasangi procurement was achieved with the help of 6,408 procurement centres. In all 65 lakh tons of paddy worth Rs 12,000 crore was procured from 9.68 lakh farmers. “So far, Rs 11,000 crore has been deposited into the accounts of farmers and the remaining will be credited into their accounts within a few days,” Srinivas Reddy said.

Unlike the past, paddy was taken up in 39 lakh acres in the state and as estimated, 1 crore ton of paddy was produced. Out of this, a total yield of 65 lakh tons was procured by the civil supplies department, 12 lakh tons purchased by rice millers. Around 15 lakh tons are of a fine variety and over 6 lakh tons have been set aside as seed, he said.

The state is facing a shortage of gunny bags because of the bumper crop. The demand for gunny bags was estimated at 18 crore. “As on March 24 at the time of imposition of lockdown, there were only 9 crore gunny bags available with the department. Supplies from Kolkata stopped because of the lockdown. But we saw to it that the farmers are not put to trouble because of the shortage. We succeeded in overcoming this problem too,” he said.