Telangana has achieved a paddy production of 15.3 million metric tonnes during this kharif season, an all-time record, chief minister A Revanth Reddy and state irrigation and civil supplies minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy said in separate statements on Sunday.

An official statement from the chief minister’s office said Telangana achieved a record production of 15.3 million metric tonnes in 6.67 million acres, despite the fact that Kaleshwaram major irrigation project on Godavari river remained defunct in the last one year.

“The achievement debunks the false propaganda unleashed by the Bharat Rashtra Samithi that the construction of Kaleshwaram project during its regime resulted in increase in cultivation of paddy and production of paddy over the last five years,” Revanth said.

He said the Medigadda barrage of Kaleshwaram project had suffered heavy damage in October 2023, as a result of which water could not be stored in it and lifted into Annaram and Sundilla barrages as per instructions of National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA).

“In spite of this, paddy was cultivated and harvested in a big way. This is the greatness of Telangana farmers, and result of their sweat, hard work and hardship. Telangana farmers are the pride of the country,” he added.

In a separate statement, Uttam Kumar Reddy said Telangana broke all the previous records in achieving production of 15.3 million metric tonnes of paddy in a record acreage of 6.67 million acres in the present kharif season, which is the highest paddy production in the history of Telangana or in combined Andhra Pradesh.

“This is also the highest-ever paddy production in any state in a year in the country so far. This despite all three barrages of Kaleshwaram project being non-functional,” he said and congratulated agriculture and irrigation officials for the record paddy production.

A report submitted by the state agriculture department to the state government has revealed that farmers raised paddy in 6.67 million hectares despite lack of sufficient rains initially. Subsequently, there were copious rains in the state, leading to record production of paddy.

In 2019 kharif season, the farmers of Telangana raised paddy in 4,041,000 acres and produced 8.976 million metric tonnes of paddy. In kharif-2020, paddy was raised 5.25 million acres and the yield was 9,627,000 metric tonnes. In 2021, paddy was cultivated in 6,214,000 acres and the production was 12.44 million metric tonnes. In 2022, paddy was cultivated in 6.5 million acres and the yield was 13.8 million metric tonnes. In 2023, paddy was raised in 6.59 million acres and the yield was 14.48 million metric tonnes, the report said.

Reddy said the farmers had gone in for the fine variety of paddy in a big way, thanks to the bonus of ?500 over and above the MSP on the paddy.

Source: Hindustan Times