TS first State to purchase 100% paddy from farmers

Hyderabad: Telangana has emerged as one of the largest foodgrain producing States in the country. Slews of measures taken up by the State government helped to increase the farmers' income as well as farm production ever since the Telangana State was formed in 2014.

The procurement of paddy by the State government created confidence among the farmers.

The government has set up grain purchase centres in villages through IKP, Primary Agricultural Co-operative Credit Unions, DCMS, GCC etc to buy the paddy by providing minimum support price. The money was directly credited to farmers' accounts after purchase of grain. For the welfare of the farmers and the poor, the government was buying paddy and distributed the ration rice to the poor. Except Telangana state, no State in India was buying paddy grown by the farmers to the full. The Telangana State has procured 6 crore 6 lakh metric tonnes of grain from 2014-2015 to 2021-2022 at a cost of Rs 1,07,777 crore. In the last eight years, with the government's actions, the production of crops has increased significantly and the income of farmers has also increased.

Last year, during the monsoon season and Yasangi season together, the government bought one crore and twenty lakh metric tons of rice. In relation to this monsoon season, the government has taken measures to purchase one crore metric tonnes of grain, estimating the production of 1, 51 crore metric tonnes of rice in 65 lakh acres. So far this season, it has set up 6,787 purchase centres and purchased 33.47 lakh metric tonnes of grain worth Rs 6,892 crore.

After the formation of Telangana State, ration of six kg of rice per person per month at the rate of one kilogram per rupee, regardless of the number of persons in the family was supplied. 2. 83 crore people are receiving ration with a total of 90.01 lakh cards in Telangana. Out of this 54.37 lakh ration cards are provided by the Centre while 35.64 lakh ration cards are provided by the State government.

Since January 2015, Sanna Biyyam ( fine rice) food has been distributed to the government welfare hostels as part of mid-day meal scheme. There are 25.10 lakh students studying in 28,636 schools and 9.65 lakh students belonging to 4237 welfare hostels and institutions.