The pace of Telangana’s paddy purchases is modest. The State has so far purchased 60 lakh tonnes (lt) of paddy, falling short of its goal of 100 lt for the Kharif harvesting season, according to the most recent data. A total of 12,500 crore worth of paddy was purchased from roughly 10 lakh farmers. According to Civil Supplies Minister Gangula Kamalakar, “We have so far credited 11,000 crores.” Last year at this time, the State had acquired 65 lt of paddy.
The Civil Supplies Department opened 7,011 procurement centres across the State but has already closed 4,500 of them. With the purchase of 6 lt, Nizamabad district came in first, followed by Kamareddy with 5 lt and Nalgonda with 4 lt. The government had shut down a significant number of procurement centres, according to the farmers’ unions, so there was no cause to celebrate the results just yet.
In contrast to the season’s average of 17 lh, farmers cultivated paddy on a record 26.30 lakh hectares during the Kharif season. They stated that they would obtain 100 lt. However, only 59 lt have been acquired thus far, considerably short of the desired quantities, according to a union head for farmers. The majority of the procurement centres have been closed, according to T Sagar, Secretary of Telangana Rythu Sangham, signalling the end of the procurement process. “We anticipate acquiring another 5 lt,” he stated.
