Telangana to have new milling, auction policy for paddy

With the annual production of paddy crossing the 3-crore tonne mark and milling capacities unable to process the output, the Telangana government has set up a high-level committee to suggest new milling policy and measures to promote food processing industries in the State. The committee would also work on the modalities for auctioning the paddy.

Besides running a health check on the milling industry in the State, the committee would provide a list of recommendations to increase the milling capacities to suit the growing paddy output.

The State faced serious challenges last year while handing over the custom-milled rice to the Central pool, with the mills failing to process the paddy from 2021-21.

After extending the deadlines more than once, the Centre refused to extend it any further, leaving behind about 4 lakh tonnes of paddy procured.

Seeing the State saddled with inadequate milling capacities, the Centre asked the State to increase the milling capacities to ensure that the situation doesn’t get repeated.

Though the paddy output increased over four times since the formation of the State, there is not much increase in the milling capacities, causing lags in processing the paddy.

Also read: Telangana ‘convincing’ farmers to shift from paddy to overcome surplus output 

The State grows paddy in 23.23 lakh hectares, covering about 42 per cent of the cultivable area. Unlike other paddy-growing States, Telangana grows paddy in the rabi season also. 

“We need to have a new policy and formulate new guidelines to make the optimum use of the increased paddy production in the agricultural season 2022-23,” Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has said.

The State Special Chief Secretary to the Finance Department will head the committee.

The Special Secretary to the Industries and Commerce Department, the Secretary to the Chief Minister’s Office, the Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TSIIC) Managing Director and the Commissioner of Civil Supplies will be the members in the committee.

“The committee will study the present milling capacity in the State by mapping the weak links, paddy yields, and the procurement mechanism,” a senior government official said.

Incentives

The policy would suggest measures to incentivise the investors who are willing to invest in the milling units. It would also suggest suitable areas where food processing zones can be developed. 

In order to fast forward the plan to establish new mills in a year, the committee will identify suitable technologies.

The committee will also suggest measures to assess the paddy quality, finalisation of paddy price, and, auctioning.

Also read: Telangana to invest ₹2,000-cr to set up rice mills across districts

“The paddy price will be fixed after evolving a consensus among all stakeholders,” he said.

It will also suggest changes to the present Custom Milling Policy to ensure compulsory milling of certain quantities.

Auction policy

The government issued a GO entrusting the task of preparing modalities for the auction of surplus paddy. Besides assessing the quality of the paddy, the committee would study the market and potential for the auction of paddy with respect to the quality and rate.

“It will decide on the quantum of paddy that can be auctioned factoring in on the paddy output for the particular season. It will also evolve a formula to arrive at a base price for the auction,” the GO said.