Paddy farmers to lose Rs 3,000 cr to millers

Hyderabad: The paddy farmers are falling prey to rice millers' exploitation in the Telangana State. While all eyes are on the TRS big dharna against the Centre on paddy procurement in Delhi on Monday, the paddy growers are on the verge of losing nearly Rs 3,000 crore as the millers are forcing them to sell the paddy at distress prices. Perhaps first time in Telangana, the paddy farmers are facing big difficulty to sell their produce below the MSP (Minimum Support Price) in the Rabi season.

The disappointed farming community is expecting some relief from Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao who is likely to take part in the big dharna in the national capital.

The State government was supposed to open paddy procurement centres on April 1 and buy the produce from the farmers directly during every farming season. The government has announced the closure of procurement centres in the current Rabi season after the Centre turned down the State's plea to procure paddy directly in place of raw rice.

Millers in Nalgonda, Suryapet and Kamareddy district have been buying paddy below the MSP from farmers. Farmers are forced to sell paddy for Rs 1,500 to Rs 1,600 per quintal as against Rs 1,900. The millers have formed syndicates in Miryalaguda in Suryapet where they produce paddy in huge quantity every season. In old Nalgonda district, the farming community goes for paddy in two seasons as they have abundant water resources through canal system under Nagarjuna Sagar project.

T Ravi Kumar from Ramapuram in Chilkuru mandal of Suryapet district said that he cultivated paddy in his 10 acres of land and now selling the produce at lower prices as the State government did not open the procurement centres. He said KCR's call to stop paddy cultivation in Rabi was against the farmers interest.

It was the government's responsibility to make arrangements for alternative cropping before the farmers sowed paddy. In this season, the paddy was cultivated in 30 lakh acres of land and the total produce is above 70 lakh metric tonnes. Millers entered agreement to buy 20 lakh metric tonnes of paddy before the beginning of the season. Farmers were left in the lurch after the State and the Centre stopped procurement. Taking it as an advantage, the millers are exploiting the farmers. The growers of superfine rice varieties such as Chintla and HMT are also not getting MSP as millers are paying Rs 1,800 per quintal as against Rs 2,200 MSP in the procurement centres.

From next week, paddy farmers in Warangal, Nizamabad and Karimnagar will also have to go to the millers to sell the produce at the distressed prices. It is estimated that a farmer will incur a loss of at least Rs 5,000 per acre for not getting MSP on paddy this year. It will be around, Rs 3,000 crore loss to the entire farming community which cultivated paddy in Rabi this year.

Nearly 1,000 raw rice mills , most of them located in Suryapet, Nalgonda and Warangal districts are busy procuring paddy and the stocks are under the process of making raw rice. "Once the procurement is over, the millers will create artificial scarcity of old rice in the open market and increase the prices," said a farmer.