Good increase in paddy area due to announcement of bonus in Telangana

07-Oct-2024 11:32 AM

Hyderabad. The Telangana government has decided to give an additional bonus of Rs 500 per quintal over and above the minimum support price (MSP) of super fine (A grade) paddy. With its announcement already, farmers got a good incentive to increase the area of ​​paddy. According to official figures, the paddy production area in Telangana during the current Kharif season has increased to 26.50 lakh hectares, which is 5.50 lakh hectares more than last year's area of ​​21 lakh hectares and 3.50 lakh hectares more than the five-year average area of ​​23 lakh hectares.

It is noteworthy that the Central Government has fixed the minimum support price of paddy for the marketing season of 2024-25 at Rs 2300 per quintal for Mukli general category and Rs 2320 per quintal for A grade. On this basis, the farmers of Telangana will get a price of Rs 2820 per quintal for super fine paddy this time. The state government has estimated an expenditure of Rs 2250 to 2500 crores for this additional bonus, but farmer organizations believe that the actual expenditure will be less than half of the government estimate. It is worth noting that Telangana is a leading producer of paddy and contributes a large amount of rice to the Central Papol.

Farmer organizations say that the area under super fine variety paddy in Telangana is less than the government estimate and its average yield rate is also lower than that of normal category paddy. The Telangana government has estimated the purchase of a total of 91 lakh tonnes of paddy this year, in which the share of super fine variety is likely to be between 45.50 lakh tonnes. But farmer organizations say that the share of super fine variety in the total paddy production area in the state is only around 20 percent and its productivity is also low. The yield rate of super fine paddy is 15-16 quintals and the yield rate of other varieties of paddy is around 20 quintals.