In a relief to Telangana farmers, the Centre has agreed to procure six lakh tonnes of rice (about nine lakh tonnes of paddy) more from the kharif season, taking the total rice procurement from the State to 46 lakh tonnes.

The Food Corporation of India (FCI) has set a target of 60 lakh tonnes of paddy (or, 40 lakh tonnes of rice), valued at ₹12,000 crore, from the State for the 2021 kharif season.

Telangana, which has completed the paddy procurement target three days ago, has said that there was a need to revise the target as it expected 25-30 lakh tonnes of paddy more.

Though initially reluctant to increase the procurement target, the Centre has taken a decision to procure more, with the issue taking a political turn.

The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has launched State-wide protests, demanding the Union Government to procure more paddy from the State.

Ministerial team

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had deputed a five-member Ministerial team, headed by Agriculture Minister Singireddy Niranjan Reddy, to Delhi to hold discussions with Union Food and Public Distribution Minister Piyush Goyal and officials.

They wanted to put pressure on the Union Government to increase the upper ceiling, considering the bumper harvest this year. The State expects a total production of about 1.3 crore tonnes of paddy from kharif. Of this, it expects about 90 lakh tonnes to come to the procurement centres.

The team returned to Hyderabad with the Union Government giving no assurance on hiking the target levels.

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