Kerala to resume purchase of boiled rice from AP

Vijayawada: Kerala has requested Andhra Pradesh to resume supply of boiled rice. Kerala is also seeking to import chilli and pulses from Andhra Pradesh.

Kerala minister for food and civil supplies G R Anil held talks with his AP counterpart Karumuri Nageswara Rao on the issue here on Monday. According to preliminary estimate, Kerala would require one lakh tonne paddy that turns into 60,000 tonne of boiled rice. Kerala said it would let AP know the exact quantity required by October 21.

The two sides will have a further meeting in Thiruvananthapuram on October 27 to take the issue forward, the ministers told reporters after their talks. Previously, boiled rice known as Jaya Bondal (MTU 3626) used to be shipped from AP to Kerala and was in good demand.

For the past few years, however, the demand shrunk as Kerala was getting boiled rice from other states. "But in the name of Jaya Bondal, duplicate varieties are being supplied, which is not liked by our people. Hence, we are seeking to import the Jaya variety grown in AP that has a unique taste and flavour," the Kerala food minister said.

The AP minister said they would encourage farmers to go for cultivation of Jaya variety boiled rice if Kerala offered a remunerative price. "This variety is grown in East and West Godavari districts only during the rabi crop season. We had earlier discouraged the farmers from its cultivation due to lack of demand," Nageswara Rao said.

They would again encourage farmers to grow Jaya variety if the deal with Kerala was firmed up. Production of boiled rice has seen a significant decline in AP from 16.56 lakh tonne in 2019-20 to 9.56 lakh tonne in 2020-21 and 8.04 lakh tonne in 2021-22.

Last year, the AP government procured 25 per cent of the boiled rice produced. Boiled rice apart, Kerala also sought to buy chilli (the famous Guntur variety), red gram, green gram and black gram from AP. Kerala is offering spices and tea to AP in return. "We will hopefully clinch a deal at the meeting on October 27 or we will have another round subsequently," the AP minister said.