Telangana govt’s announcement of Rs 500 bonus on fine paddy pushes cultivation up by 61%

Hyderabad: In a remarkable achievement, fine variety paddy (sanna vadlu) cultivation in Telangana has gone up by 61 per cent to four million acres this kharif season compared to 2.5 million acres during the same period last year, government sources said on Sunday.

In a social media post, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy complimented farmers and said for the first time after the formation of Telangana, despite the Kaleshwaram Project not being in a position to store water, paddy was harvested at a record level.

The reason for increase in the acreage (fine paddy) is attributed to the Rs 500 bonus per quintal for the fine variety paddy announced by the Congress government in the state as part of its poll promise, sources said.

“The state government has announced the Rs 500 bonus on the minimum support price (MSP) on the fine variety paddy from this season. As a result, the cultivation area of sanna vadlu has increased by 61 per cent compared to last time,” they said.

On the other hand, the cultivation of non-fine variety paddy declined significantly, dropping from 4.1 million acres to 2.63 million acres during the season.

The total paddy production stood at 15.3 million tons against 14.6 million tons last year while during the rainy season of this year, the total area under paddy cultivation is 66.77 lakh acres against 65.94 lakh acres in the same season previous year.

The state government estimates that the civil supplies department will have to procure 8 million tons of the grains this season though 7,411 paddy procurement centres across the state.

So far, the Civil Supplies Department has procured nearly one million tons of paddy from 1.41 lakh farmers in the state through purchase centers.

“BRS' false propaganda that Kaleshwaram increased paddy cultivation in Telangana has been debunked,” Reddy said in a post on X.

The CM recently instructed officials to invoke the Essential Services Maintenance Act in case of any disruption of the process by millers or traders, the sources added.