Telangana to become rice bowl of India with a record production of 1.3 crores tonnes of rice

Telangana Hyderabad :January 15 (HS): A report from Federation of Telangana Chamber of Comerce and Industry (FTCCI) says that  the rice production of Telangana has  reached 1.3 crore tonnes during 2019-20 making it the rice bowl of India .

With completion of new irrigation projects and increase in land under irrigation, the production increased by more than 20 per cent over the previous year.

Telangana, which grows rice in about 14.19 lakh hectares, saw huge improvement in production ever since it was carved out of Andhra Pradesh in 2014.

The rice production, which stood at 29.6 lakh tonnes in 2015-16, rose to 51.7 lakh tonnes in 2016-17 and to 62.5 lakh tonnes in 2017-18.

Telangana  also accounted for about 63 per cent of Food Corporation of India’s (FCI) total paddy procurement across India  till date.

According to a report by Federation of Telangana Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FTCCI), the state recorded a big jump in rice production, mainly due to the fact that more than 60 lakh acres of additional land were brought under irrigation.

This was possible with the completion of many major and minor irrigation projects such as Kaleshwaram project, Devadula Project and revival of tanks under Mission Kakatiya.

In a report titled as ‘Rice exports from Telangana: Opportunities and way forward’ the industry body said availability of water coupled with 24X7 free power supply to farmers contributed to substantial improvement in productivity and production of food grains and pulses.

Earlier, the Telangana State Civil Supplies Corporation had said that the state set new records with 47 lakh tonnes procurement  during Kharif and 65 lakh tonnes in Rabi  during 2019-20.

 FTCCI report, in its reports expressed concern at the need to increase  rice exports from Telangana. It noted that despite the high level of rice production, when it comes to exports, the state’s figures are negligible compared to other states.

The report identified high transportation cost for exporters, high levels of pesticide residue in rice produced here, lack of proper warehousing facilities and the shift in cultivation of paddy variety from long grain to short grain as the main reasons for low exports from the state.

Telangana, which exported 10,425 tonnes during 2019-20, accounted for just 0.21 per cent of the total exports of 5.08 million tonnes at national level. Andhra Pradesh, during the same period, exported 16.9 lakh tonnes, which is 33.6 per cent of the total exports.

Telangana is encouraging cultivators to shift from long grain paddy variety to short grain paddy variety named as ‘Telangana Sona’ to increase the fine variety rice production. However, exporters feel that only long grain rice has demand in the international market and shifting to a short grain variety may affect the exports adversely, the report pointed out.

It suggested developing export zones in the state for growing specific varieties of non-basmati and basmati varieties of crop. According to the industry body, Egypt, Mexico, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines are the potential markets.

Pointing out that the state has about 2,000 rice mills, it called for modernising them by giving some incentives.It underlined the need to ensure modern milling capacity, better testing, storage and handling infrastructure to effectively market to other countries and also to provide better income to farmers.