Nizamabad farmers protest against delay in Rabi paddy procurement

Hyderabad: Tension prevailed at the Paddy Procurement Centre (PPC) in Yellareddipally village of Indalwai mandal of Nizamabad district on Friday, May 1, as farmers observed a sit-in protest on the road against the inordinate delay in the procurement of paddy for the Rabi marketing season.

The farmers blocked the road and cooked food there, raising slogans against the state government, chanting “CM down down,” and set a heap of paddy on fire. One of the farmers, reportedly the sarpanch’s husband, doused himself in diesel. The police prevented him from taking any extreme step.

The farmers demanded Nizamabad Rural MLA R Bhoopathi Reddy come to the PPC and resolve the issues.

According to Ranjith, staff assistant at the Dharpally Primary Agricultural Cooperative Society (PACS), the root cause of the protest was indeed the delay in procurement.

He told Siasat.com that there were two PPCs set up in Yellareddipally village, with one operated by the PACS and the other operated by Indira Kranthi Patham (IKP) of the Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP).

“The IKP procured around 4,000 to 5,000 bags and then stopped procuring. Ours (PACS) PPC is still running, but there is a shortage of gunny bags, lorries and hamalis,” he said.

Ranjith said that despite PACS purchasing 20,000 gunny bags, there was still a need for at least 30,000 more to meet the demand.

He also noted that the hamalis who have to lift the paddy were not showing much interest in working under the prevailing high temperatures, and the lorries to transport the procured paddy from the PPC to the rice mills were also limited. Above all, he said that allotment of paddy lots to the rice mills also needed to be made swiftly to avoid further delays.

“By now, 75 per cent of paddy should have been procured. Naturally the farmers are depressed over the delay in procurement,” Ranjith said.

The Telangana Civil Supplies Department had announced procuring 10.2 lakh tonne paddy for the Rabi 2025-26 season as of Thursday, April 30.

So far, the state government has purchased 4.50 tonne fine variety and 5.50 tonne coarse variety of paddy.

The state government has already released Rs 500.20 crore in payments for the procured paddy directly to over 1 lakh farmers across the state, according to a statement released by the Civil Supplies Department on Thursday.