HYDERABAD: Senior officials of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) suggested to the Telangana government to adopt the Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh model in order to overcome the broken rice problem, especially during Rabi season.
The government of Andhra Pradesh pays Rs 110 per quintal of broken rice to millers. Chhattisgarh pays Rs 120 per quintal. If Telangana too adopts the same, the broken rice issue and the problem of non-procurement of parboiled rice could be resolved, they said.
The rice mills have to give 67 kg of rice to the FCI for every 100 kg of paddy supplied to them and out of that, around 17 kg (25 per cent) of broken rice would be accepted by the FCI. The FCI also accepts three per cent damaged and three per cent discolored paddy.
However, in case of Rabi, millers will get around 34 kg of broke rice, if they go for raw rice. Out of which, 17 kg of broken rice will be accepted by the FCI. The problem in Rabi season is with the remaining 17 kg of the total 34 kg.
For the excess of broken rice over and above the FCI limit, the AP and Chhattisgarh were paying some amount to the rice mills. Thus, both the States are supplying raw rice to FCI. The Telangana government too should adopt such a model, the sources in FCI suggested.
They pointed out that the broken rice can be sold for Rs 19 per kg by the millers. If the millers say that they would get only Rs 14 or Rs 15 per kg of broken rice, the balance amount of Rs 5 or Rs 4 per kg has to be borne by the government.
The State government estimated that the burden on the State’s exchequer would be around Rs 3,000 crore as the FCI is procuring only raw rice. However, the FCI officials put the loss at Rs 500 crore to Rs 1,000 crore as the millers can sell the broken rice, husk and other byproducts.