Hyderabad: The Telangana government has spent Rs 1.07 lakh crore to procure 6.06 crore tonnes of paddy in the last eight years.
In the year 2020-21, the state government procured 1.41 crore tonnes of paddy cultivated during the Kharif and Rabi seasons. The new record for paddy procurement is being accredited to the construction of irrigation projects, Rythu Bandhu financial assistance, Rythu Bima, uninterrupted free power supply, and other schemes to support the agricultural sector.
The above-mentioned schemes resulted in the gross cultivation area rising to 2.3 crore acres in 2021-22 against 1.34 crore acres in 2014. Similarly, the gross paddy production increased from 68 lakh tonnes in 2014-15 to 2.49 crore tonnes in 2021-22.
The process was also aided by the setting up of 6,000 procurement centres across Telangana. The government procured the crop at the Minimum Support Price, which helped the farmers, as agreements were made to transfer the amount directly to their accounts.
It is to be noted that the Telangana government procured the entire paddy crop during the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown during 2020-21. In 2022 during the Kharif marketing season, the state government initiated efforts to purchase nearly one crore tonnes of paddy from farmers. As of Wednesday, nearly 33.5 lakh tonnes of paddy worth Rs 6,892 crore have been procured.
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