HYDERABAD: With 1.48 crore metric tonnes of paddy expected to be produced this vanakalam season, the State government has decided to request the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to procure an additional 15 to 20 MT of paddy.Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy on Tuesday that the FCI agreed to procure 60 lakh MT while 56 lakh MT is expected be consumed locally and 20 lakh MT would be supplied to other states.
During a review meeting on production and procurement of paddy held at the Ministers’ Quarters in Hyderabad, which was attended by civil supplies, agriculture, marketing and FCI officials, the Minister stressed the need to expand warehousing facilities in view of last year’s paddy still lying in the FCI’s godowns and also because this vavakalam’s produce needs to be stored.
With the Marketing Department having already prepared a detailed project report on construction of godowns with a 40 lakh MT capacity, it was agreed that giving subsidies to interested contractors would help keep the construction costs low, at the same time encouraging them to build maximum storage spaces. It was also agreed that more study would be done on this aspect and then the issue would be brought to the notice of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.