PROBLEM OF PLENTY: Farmers wait for procurement of paddy at the Karimnagar agricultural marketyard.

KARIMNAGAR: Thanks to a bumper harvest, Karimnagar is all set to become number one in paddy production with an expected yield of about 9 lakh metric tonnes this season.

Due to abundant rainfall, recharging of ground water and assured seven-hour power supply to farmers, paddy was cultivated in about 4 lakh hectares during the rabi season.

Against the normal paddy production of about 15 to 21 quintals per acre during the rabi season, this time it had gone up to 25 quintals to 27 quintals per acre.

The agricultural market committees in the district are flooded with the crop, but procurement has become a big hurdle. It is alleged that the farmers are forced to stay at the marketyards for days together for procurement of paddy by the Civil Supplies Department and other agencies.

Because of delay in the procurement by the Government agencies, farmers are forced to sell off their produce to private mills at a price lower than the minimum support price.

CPI district unit leaders staged dharna in the Karimnagar agricultural marketyard on Tuesday demanding that the authorities take measures for the early procurement of paddy.

In a press note on Tuesday, Collector M.V. Satyanarayana said that so far 75,000 metric tonnes of paddy had been procured by providing MSP and Rs. 46 crore handed over to farmers. He said that the administration had opened 103 procurement centres including 17 civil supplies centres, 78 Indira Kranthi Patham centres and eight Food Corporation of India centres. On an average, they were procuring about 7,000 tonnes of paddy in the district daily, he added.

An MSP of Rs. 650 was provided for A grade paddy and Rs 620 for the B grade variant.

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