Addressing Telangana’s paddy problem
The rabi paddy conundrum continues to haunt Telangana. After the Centre had made no bones about its inability to procure parboiled rice, the state is getting ready to produce raw rice from rabi paddy. The catch here is that a large portion of such rice gets broken.
Rabi paddy has remained an emotive issue for the last two years in the state. Both the TRS and BJP have traded charges over the problem spiralling out of control. Last year, the FCI procured piled-up parboiled rice only after the state gave in writing to the Centre that it would not offer it in future. Last month, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao sat in a dharna in Delhi, asking the Centre to procure parboiled rice despite the state’s earlier promise. The Centre later said it would procure 40 lakh tonnes of raw rice from rabi paddy but not parboiled rice. The state expects rabi paddy yield to be about 65 lakh tonnes. Meanwhile, the cloudburst in the state last Wednesday damaged paddy at several procurement centres, heaping losses on farmers.
Normally, 100 kg of kharif paddy yields 67 kg of raw rice. In the case of rabi paddy, of the 67 kg, 34 kg would break into pieces at the time of milling. Of this, the FCI is ready to take up to 17 kg of broken rice per quintal; this leaves another 17 kg with the millers, which they can sell at Rs 17–18 per kg. If the miller suffers any loss in selling broken rice, both the governments could chip in to help him.
As rabi paddy is going to be a recurring problem, both the Centre and state should sit together and hammer out a solution instead of blaming each other to score brownie points with the farmers. Better still, Telangana should take a hard look at substituting rabi paddy with alternative crops and ensure a good price to get the farmers interested in them.