Telangana farmers in disarray: paddy procurement drops, tardy “Rythu Bandhu”, elusive Rs.500 bonus

HYDERABAD:The Revanth Reddy Government has promised a Rs 500 bonus for every quintal of paddy that arrives at the procurement centres. The procurement of Yasangi (Rabi) paddy has started but there is no sign of the bonus. The farmers are forced to sell their produce at a price much lower than the Minimum Support Price (MSP) due to a lack of proper and timely market intervention by the Government.

Bonus is an added incentive for farmers to bring their produce to the designated market yard and also to save them from falling into the hands of unscrupulous traders. Already the farmers are facing a financial crunch due to the lack of ‘Rytu Bharosa’ assistance, and pressure from bankers to repay loans in the absence of a Rs 2 lakh crop loan waiver. As a result of this, they are now forced to sell their produce much less than the MSP.

The paddy procurement in the State has been tardy and the fall in the arrivals so far at the procurement centres in the State indicates that the overall arrivals might be around 50 lakh tonnes far below the 1.20 crore tonnes of paddy that arrived and purchased by the State and the FCI last year.

In contrast, the farmers of Telangana achieved a bumper yield of 1.20 crore tonnes of paddy during the K Chandrashekar Rao’s Government during Rabi 2023 and the overall paddy procurement crossed a whopping 3.5 crore tonnes mark bringing Telangana close to Panjab the cradle of the green revolution.

The Congress Government however had set a target of procuring 75.40 lakh tonnes of paddy from the Yasangi crop through 7,149 procurement centres across the State.

The price and the bonus

The main reason why the farmers are shying away from reaching out to the procurement centres was the price the Government was offering. Farmers who grow A-grade kind of paddy prefer to sell their produce to private buyers. They offer a higher price than the Minimum Support Price (MSP) offered by the Government. While the Telangana Government is offering Rs 2,203 per quintal of A-grade the private operators are offering around 2,500 to 2,800 per quintal.

“The farmers are forced to sell their produce much less than the MSP at the centres as the middlemen are ruling the roost. In the absence of the Rs 500 per quintal bonus announced by the Revanth Reddy Government, farmers are preferring to sell their produce to private operators,” BRS MLA and former chairman of Farmers Coordination Committee Palla Rajeshwar Reddy told NewsTAP.

He further said that delay in setting up the procurement centres also resulted in farmers settling down for a lesser price and selling their produce as delay in procurement means that they need to save the paddy from rain and winds in the open market yards.

In Birkur mandal of Banswada farmers lost their produce due to untimely rains that washed away the paddy they spread on the floor of the market yard on Friday. According to the BRS leaders in Janagaon district, only 440 tonnes of paddy was procured by the 193 out of the 4,000 tonnes of paddy brought by the farmers so far.

Adding to the trouble, Janagaon market yard traders announced that they would not purchase paddy till the authorities released three traders who were arrested by the police. They said that the State Government was troubling them even as they were sticking to the norms.

Naga Bandi Ravinder, President of Janagaon Traders Association stated that the purchase of grain in the market has been stopped as the Government registered criminal cases against the traders. He explained that the price is fixed in the market according to the website, and if the farmers are ready to sell their produce based on the e-platform they will buy. They demanded that the cases against them be dropped. They alleged that false propaganda was unleashed against them because they were buying at lower prices.

Lack of irrigation

While the process of procurement of the paddy was tardy and late, the production of paddy itself was hurt due to crop failure in many parts of the State during the Yasangi season. The impact was evident in the common area of Nagarjuna as Sagar under Krishna and the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP) under Godavari.

The situation was so bad under the Nagarjuna Sagar command area that a crop holiday was declared. However, the farmers tried their best to sink new borewells to save the standing crop and incurred huge losses. Yadadri, Bhuvanagiri, Suryapet, and Nalgonda were the worst hit.

On the other hand around 5,000 cusecs of water every day and 50 TMC of water so far has been released through the beleaguered Medigadda barrage into the Sea, drastically affecting the groundwater levels in Yellampally, SRSP, and Nizamsagar project’s command areas. According to estimates crop damage or failure was noted on 15 lakh acres during the Yasangi season resulting in a huge dent in arrivals of paddy at different market yards and procurement centres.

CM warns

Meanwhile, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy warned of stringent action against the rice millers over unfair practices on Friday. Following the protests of farmers in Janagaon, he reviewed the situation and ordered the cancellation of licenses of those millers and traders if they were found indulging in unfair practices.