Hyderabad: New paddy, rice policy on cards

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has announced that a comprehensive Telangana state paddy and rice policy would be prepared keeping in view increase in the paddy yields in the state.

The Chief Minister on Monday instructed the officials concerned to formulate the policy after holding consultations with rice millers and other stakeholders. He also announced that the government would protect the interests of millers and make them active participants in state's development and progress.

KCR held a high-level review meeting here on Monday on paddy cultivation, paddy yield, preparation of rice and exports, and the policy to be pursued and other related issues. There is a possibility of getting more than one crore tonnes of paddy, he was told at the meeting. He observed that the state would cultivate 2.25 crore tonnes of paddy every year and go on to become the Rice Bowl of India.

However, as under present circumstances due to nation-wide lockdown, procuring paddy and sending it to the mills to make rice and selling it will become a hard task, the existing policy or method would need to be bettered. There is a need to implement a comprehensive paddy and rice policy so that the paddy produced can be made into rice and sold without any problem, the CM noted at the meeting.

"There are 2,200 rice mills all over the state. These mills can mill one crore tonnes of rice per year. In the past, these mills could not get the paddy to operate to their optimum capacity. Even to mill 20 to 30 lakh tonnes used to be a difficult task. Now the situation has changed. There is supply of paddy in abundance. Besides, there is 24-hour uninterrupted power supply. Hence, we need to have more mills and make them stakeholders in the State's progress," the CM urged.