Cultivate fine rice: govt tells farmers as production drops
The state government has announced a new incentive to encourage farmers to cultivate fine variety rice, aiming to address the shortage of this rice in the market. With a bonus of Rs 500 per quintal on top of MSP, officials aim to compensate farmers while ensuring an adequate supply for ration card holders. Currently, coarse rice stocks are accumulating, prompting the move to shift focus towards fine rice cultivation.
Hyderabad: The state govt has decided to encourage farmers to cultivate fine variety of rice (paddy) as majority of the farmers are producing coarse variety, the reserves of which are piling up. This is resulting in shortage of fine variety of rice and the prices shooting up in the market. Officials said the state cabinet’s decision on Monday to offer Rs 500 bonus in addition to MSP for a quintal of fine variety paddy was taken with plans to not only compensate the farmers losing out on their quantity of yield due to replacing coarse variety with fine variety paddy, but also supply fine rice to lakhs of ration card holders in the state through fair price shops.
Sources in the CMO told TOI that a substantial number of white ration card holders are not preferring to have coarse rice and many of them were selling it. It may be recalled Congress had made an election promise to supply fine rice through the public distribution system.
“While stocks of coarse variety are accumulating, the fine rice quota is not enough even for distribution in the state. Farmers in the state are cultivating a large quantity of coarse variety of paddy in every season. Due to this, there is a shortage of fine varieties. The prices of fine rice in the market are going up beyond the reach of the common man,” said an official.
The govt requires at least 36 lakh metric tonnes of fine variety rice per annum to cater to the needs of white ration card holders in the state. The govt is also supplying fine rice for mid-day meals scheme in educational institutions, welfare hostels and anganwadi centres. Presently, coarse variety rice is being supplied to white ration card holders through the PDS. The yield of fine variety rice is lesser compared to the coarse variety and that is why farmers cultivate coarse variety, an expert said.
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