Govt. is gearing up to buy Kharif paddy fields with ₹ 18,250 cr.

Civil Supplies Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy at a preparatory meeting on procurement of Kharif rice in Hyderabad on Saturday. | Photo credit: By arrangement

HYDERABAD

Irrigation and Civil Supplies Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Saturday instructed Civil Supplies Corporation officials to make foolproof arrangements for a massive ₹ 18,250 crore Kharif rice procurement operation to purchase 65 thousand tonnes of rice.

“Farmers should not suffer delay at procurement centers or face any difficulty in receiving payment,” he said while addressing Additional Collectors, District Civil Supply Officers, District Managers of TGSCSCL and other officials from across the state at the Vanakalam (Kharif) procurement review held here on Saturday.

He said 8,283 Paddy Shopping Centers (PPCs) – including 3,180 IKP centers, 4,372 PACS centers and 731 others – would be opened across the state. He wanted the authorities to open all PPCs by October 1, ahead of the arrival of production, which is scheduled to begin from October 15.

The MSP fixed for paddy was ₹ 2,461 per quintal for Grade A varieties and ₹ 2,441 for regular paddy varieties. In addition, Telangana would provide a bonus of ₹500 per cent for seven preferred varieties — BPT-5204, RNR-15048, KNM-1638, Jaisriram, HMT-Sona, WGL-44 and KNM-7715.

The minister said the seven varieties were not selected arbitrarily but the government studied domestic and international markets and identified varieties capable of fetching better prices. The goal, he said, should ultimately be to ensure profitable prices for farmers, whether through government procurement or the open market.

They estimated rice production at 119.57 million tonnes from 57.7 million acres of cultivation during the Kharif season, and the government was preparing to purchase 45 million tonnes of fine varieties (“sanna”) and 20 million tonnes of common varieties (“doddu”).

The Minister pointed out the problems related to transportation and suggested officials to ensure that the contractors applying for transportation actually own or have secured access to the required number of trucks. Transport bottlenecks should not interfere with the lifting of rice from shopping centres, he added.

Against a total requirement of 16.25 million machine guns, 3.50 million were currently available and the balance numbers were in procurement. Civil Supplies Commissioner M. Stephenson Ravindra, Director S. Shyam Prasad and Additional Director Rohit Singh were among the government officials present.

Published – 6 Sep 2026 0:10 AM IST