The Central government that refused to buy paddy from Telangana is desperate to convince the state government for more paddy procurement now.
The Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra are urging the Telangana government for paddy supplies as the yield came down in their respective States.
The Telangana farmers who were helpless in the past now got a big support from the ruling TRS government.
In the past when TDP leader N Chandrababu Naidu was chief minister of the then Andhra Pradesh, he said farming is a vain enterprise. But it was the dream of the Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to turn the farming into a viable enterprise and took bold decisions. Now Telangana has become the rice bowl of the country with increased area of cultivation and food production. The paddy production witnessed phenomenal increase. The farmers get free uninterrupted quality power, personal insurance (Rythu Bheema) input support in the form of Rythu Bandhu.
The Tamilnadu state asked for six lakh tonnes and Karnataka for two lakh tonnes of paddy from Telangana government.
The paddy production in the last summer season was 52 lakh tonnes and the previous year it was 92 lakh tonnes.
In this season the state government procured 10 lakh tonnes of paddy and millers and traders procured 20 lakh tonnes, according to official estimates.
This rainy season, paddy in Telangana state was cultivated in a record 65 lakh acres and the production is expected to be around 1.42 crore tonnes. The harvest is underway and already the traders procured 30 lakh tonnes and the state government procured 35 lakh tonnes and is planning to procure another 30 lakh tonnes.
By Gollapudi Srinivasa Rao