About 4.9 lakh farmers with a landholding from 4 to 5 acres each were extended the investment support of ₹5000 per acre, totalling ₹1,050.1 crore, under the Rythu Bandhu scheme on the fifth day of the benefit disbursement on Saturday. The amount was credited into their bank accounts from district treasuries concerned.
According to Minister for Agriculture S. Niranjan Reddy, a total of ₹5,145.87 crore has been credited into the bank accounts of about 54.37 lakh farmers with a landholding of about 102.92 lakh acres so as to help them take up kharif cultivation. He stated that the investment support given as grant since 2018 has increased the extent of cultivation and the rising production of various crops over the last last few years is an indication of it.
He explained that a highest of ₹401.92 crore has been credited into the accounts of 3,97,260 farmers in Nalgonda district and the least of ₹19.68 crore has been disbursed to 27,819 farmers in Medchal-Malkajigiri district so far. An amount of ₹254.62 crore has been given out to 2,35,549 farmers in Nagarkurnool, while ₹247.67 crore is extended to 2,66,797 farmers in Sangareddy district.
Production of paddy this season (2020-21 rabi) has been so high that it has been stored in godowns with a storage capacity of 29.26 lakh tonnes, which was only 4 lakh tonnes at the time of State formation, besides in every other possible facility such as Rythu Vedika buildings, cotton mills and others.
He suggested the opposition parties “indulging in meaningless criticism of the government on procurement of paddy this season” to think as how it had become possible to achieve such an unthinkable quantity of production and procurement. The procurement in the two seasons of 2014-15 was only 24.29 lakh tonnes, while it has been 90.01 lakh tonnes till Thursday this this one season alone.
