Hyderabad: Telangana paddy procurement crossed 60 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) during the ongoing Yasangi season, with the state accounting for nearly 60% of all paddy procured in India so far, Irrigation and Civil Supplies Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy said on Friday.
Addressing a press conference at the State Secretariat along with Agriculture Minister Tummala Nageswara Rao, Transport and BC Welfare Minister Ponnam Prabhakar, Public Enterprises and Minority Welfare Minister Mohammed Azharuddin, Members of Parliament and senior officials, Uttam Kumar Reddy said Telangana emerged as the national leader in Yasangi paddy procurement.
He said Telangana had already procured 60 LMT of paddy, compared with about 24 LMT in Andhra Pradesh, 11-12 LMT in Tamil Nadu, 3 LMT in Maharashtra and nearly 2 LMT in Kerala.
According to the minister, Telangana paddy procurement could account for nearly 75% of the country’s total Yasangi procurement by the time the season concludes.
He said Telangana also remained the leading state in supplying rice to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) under the Central Pool mechanism.
Telangana paddy procurement exceeds Centre’s limit
Uttam Kumar Reddy said the Central government had agreed to procure only up to 52 LMT of paddy from Telangana. However, the state had already crossed the 60 LMT mark.
He said the procurement achieved by Telangana exceeded the Centre’s prescribed limit by 115%. According to him, the achievement reflected both higher agricultural production and the state government’s commitment to protecting farmer interests.
The minister said paddy cultivation during Yasangi 2025-26 covered 64.36 lakh acres and resulted in an estimated production of 141 lakh metric tonnes.
He added that procurement operations were being intensified and were expected to be completed before the onset of the southwest monsoon, forecast for the first week of June.
Expressing concern over the Centre’s procurement policy, Uttam Kumar Reddy said Telangana’s paddy production had increased steadily since the Congress government assumed office.
He said rice production was growing every season, but the quantity of rice accepted by the Centre through FCI was declining. He added that both the Chief Minister and he had repeatedly raised the issue with the Union government.
The minister said Telangana deserved procurement allocations that matched its production levels because it had become one of India’s largest paddy-producing and procuring states.
Telangana paddy procurement backed by large-scale operations
To support procurement activities, the state government established 8,575 procurement centres across Telangana.
The government also deployed nearly 13,000 transport vehicles and mobilised more than two lakh personnel for procurement, transportation and logistics operations.
Uttam Kumar Reddy said minimum support price (MSP) payments worth Rs 11,050 crore had already been credited directly to farmers’ bank accounts.
He said procurement operations and farmer payments during the current KMS 2025-26 season, covering both Kharif and Yasangi crop cycles, involved nearly Rs 39,300 crore.
Referring to recent unseasonal rains, the minister said the government acted quickly to prevent losses to farmers.
Special arrangements enabled the transportation of 10,214 metric tonnes of rain-soaked paddy to boiled rice mills. As a result, affected farmers received MSP payments without disruption.
He said the government ensured that procurement continued uninterrupted and that farmers did not suffer losses because of adverse weather conditions.