Telangana has scaled a new high in the cultivation of Rabi (Yasangi) crops as they were raised on a record extent of nearly 69.24 lakh acres so far this agriculture year (2022-23), including paddy on about 53.71 lakh acres, which is also a record.
Backed by favourable conditions such as ample water in projects for irrigation, availability of groundwater and other initiatives such as investment support given under the Rythu Bandhu scheme, the extent has reached record levels. The previous record for the Rabi season was in 2020-21 when the total extent was over 68.14 lakh acres and that of paddy was 52.79 lakh acres.
According to officials of the Agriculture department, the extent of paddy this season could be the highest for a State in the country since the details of cultivation could reach the authorities for another couple of weeks.
On the other hand, the record extent, particularly of paddy, could be a problem to handle for the State government, given the bitter experience it had during the last Rabi season (2021-22). The government had moved heaven and earth both for the procurement of paddy during the last Rabi season and disposal of the rice processed after the Centre refused to accept boiled rice from the State on the grounds that there were ample stocks of such rice in the country.
The State government has made all-out efforts to convince the Centre, explaining how processing the paddy produced in high temperature conditions during the season as raw rice was not economical due to high broken-grain percentage. In such a backdrop, the Civil Supplies authorities led by Minister G. Kamalakar is scheduled to meet the Union Food and Public Distribution authorities and Minister Piyush Goyal in New Delhi on March 1.
Official sources stated that there could be a chance this season to push boiled rice with the commodity having demand across the globe. Taking into account the extent of paddy raised so far, the production could be estimated at around 1.5 crore tonnes.
Other major crops raised this Rabi season include maize on nearly 6.26 lakh acres, Bengal gram on 3.6 lakh acres, groundnut on 2.42 lakh acres, jowar on 1.2 lakh acres, black gram on 0.45 lakh acres, safflower on 0.21 lakh acres, sesamum on 0.20 lakh acres and sunflower on 0.17 lakh acres.