The Central government has disclosed that Telangana state ranked first in paddy production followed by West Bengal followed by Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. A report issued by the Union Civil Supplies corporation said for the year 2022-23, the Telangana state stood first with 160.14 lakh tonnes of paddy production while West Bengal was second with 156.37 lakh tonnes, Uttar Pradesh the third with 151.71 lakh tonnes and Punjab in fourth place with 131.47 lakh tonnes of paddy production.
Before the formation of state, Telangana was in ninth place. This was all made possible with a plethora of farmers’ welfare schemes, revival and restoration of defunct tanks in villages through the Mission Kakatiya programme, free power supply to farmers, timely availability of seeds and fertilisers and a host of other interventions that helped achieve the first rank in paddy production in the country. With his vision and commitment, Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao turned agriculture from a vain vocation to a remunerative occupation.
The stupendous Kaleshwaram project also helped increase the area of cultivation. In 2014-15, the cultivation area in two seasons was only 35 lakh acres. It has increased to 1.2 crore acres by 2022-23. In recent times, a total of 64.44 lakh acres was cultivated in rainy season and 56.44 lakh acres in the summer season. In 2014-15, the paddy production was 68 lakh tonnes while it rose to 2.66 lakh tonnes thus earning the name ‘Rice bowl of the country’.
By Gollapudi Srinivasa Rao