Telengana: Procure parboiled rice and save TS from Rs 1,441 cr loss, KTR urges Goyal

By L Venkat Ram Reddy

IT minister K.T. Rama Rao on Saturday met union food minister Piyush Goyal in Delhi and brought to his notice that the Telangana government would suffer a Rs 1,441-crore loss if the Centre insisted on procurement of raw rice instead of parboiled rice for the recently concluded rabi  season.

He urged the Centre to procure an additional 20 lakh metric tonnes of parboiled fortified rice for rabi to save the state government from losses.

Rao highlighted the significant paddy cultivation during the rabi season, covering over 57 lakh acres, which accounts for more than 50 per cent of the country’s total. The state has procured 66.11 lakh tonnes of paddy during this rabi, he said.
Rao informed Goyal that Telangana used to deliver rice to FCI in the form of parboiled during rabi seasons earlier as the high temperature during the period the paddy crop was grown made it not conducive for milling and delivery of raw rice within the stipulated broken rice limit of less than 25 per cent.

Rao added that the Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI), Mysore, conducted test milling in 11 districts of the state during the previous rabi season. The report indicated a broken percentage of 48.20 per cent for MTU 1010, the major variety grown during the season. The Centre allocated 10.20 lakh tonnes of parboiled rice target for the state (equivalent to 15 lakh tonnes of paddy), leaving a balance of 51.11 lakh metric tonnes of paddy to be milled for delivering raw rice to FCI.

“The financial implication for delivery of one lakh tonnes of raw rice to FCI works out to Rs 42.08 crore due to the additional percentage of broken quantity and the total financial implication if the State has to deliver for the balance 34.24 lakh tonnes in the form of raw rice works out to Rs 1,441 crore,” Rao said.

This article has been republished from The Deccan Chronicle