Hyderabad’April 19; Telangana has secured a Rs 12,000 crore loan from multiple banks to pay MSP ( minimum support price) to the farmers for procurement of 60 lakh metric tonnes of paddy in Rabi. To help the farmers with the selling of rabi crops, the state government has decided to set up 6,983 paddy procurement centres. As a pilot project, the authorities have already set up 536 paddy procurement centres in the districts where the harvesting of rabi crop is in progress and the officials have procured 1,200 tonnes of grain already.
The Telangana State Civil Supplies Corporation requires 15 crore gunny bags to store the procured paddy in godowns, however, only 1.6 crore gunny bags are available with the department. The officials are in the process to order 6.15 crore gunny bags while a tender will be floated to buy another 8 crore gunny bags
The State Civil Supplies Corporation has also arranged funds required for paying farmers when the process of paddy procurement begins in the state. So far, Rs. 4,350 crores has been released to the Civil Supplies department. This fund will be sufficient to procure 22 lakh metric tonnes of grain from the farmers.