HYDERABAD: With the Rabi harvest starting, the state government will set up 7,149 paddy procurement centres across Telangana. The government began paddy procurement in the last week of March.
The Agriculture department said that 5,422 centres have already started procuring paddy. Sources in the government said that the remaining 1,727 centres would be opened within two days. They said that Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy has instructed the Agriculture and Marketing departments to ensure that farmers do not face any trouble selling the paddy.
Officials said that procurement has already commenced in five districts and farmers are bringing the harvested crop to the centres. Soon, procurement will begin throughout the state, they said. The procurement of paddy is expected to be around 75.40 lakh metric tonnes (MT) this year.
Meanwhile, officials said that 31,215 MT of paddy was procured from 4,345 farmers through 443 centres by the Civil Supplies Corporation.
Meanwhile, 18.85 crore jute bags are required for rabi season to procure the paddy. As of now, 14 crore gunny bags are available with the state government. Officials said that the bags available with the government are sufficient to purchase around 56 lakh MT paddy. The government is taking steps to procure more jute bags as soon as possible, they added.