Telangana State Civil Supplies Corporation (TSCSC), the nodal agency for paddy procurement in the State on behalf of Food Corporation of India (FCI), has set a new record in purchase of paddy produced in Kharif by procuring 50.04 lakh tonnes so far, surpassing the previous best of 48.75 lakh tonnes during the last Kharif Marketing Season.
Chairman of the Corporation M. Srinivas Reddy stated here on Thursday that in spite of adverse conditions such as untimely rains during the procurement period the purchases of paddy were in record extent. The quantity of 50.04 lakh tonnes was purchased from about 9 lakh farmers and the value of the paddy procured so far was about ₹9,500 crore, he noted.
The procurement of paddy during the last KMS was 37 lakh tonnes by now and it was about 13 lakh tonnes higher this year compared to last year, in spite of multiple problems such as shortage of gunny sacks, shortage of labour (hamalis), storage space, the delay of lifting the custom milled rice pertaining to the last Rabi season by the FCI and others.
He explained that only Punjab and Haryana States were ahead of Telangana in Kharif paddy procurement and in Southern States Telangana was far ahead of other Stats in procurement as no State had procured even a quarter of the quantity Telangana had procured so far.
Mr. Srinivas Reddy further stated that of the 6,849 paddy procurement centres opened so far this season, 1,810 have already been closed in 14 districts following completion of purchases there. The procurement was nearing completion in Nizamabad, Kamareddy, Sangareddy, Siddipet, Bhadradri-Kothagudem, Karimnagar, Nirmal and Mancherial districts. The total Kharif paddy purchases at minimum support price in the State had reached 2.47 crore tonnes so far starting from 2014-15 KMS. Another 20 lakh tonnes of paddy was expected arrive at the procurement centres this season, Mr. Srinivas Reddy said.
