Telangana's Rabi Cultivation Reaches Unprecedented 69 Lakh Acres

Telangana has reached a new peak in the production of Rabi (Yasangi) crops as they have been grown on a record-breaking area of almost 69.24 lakh acres thus far in this agricultural year (2022-23), including paddy on roughly 53.71 lakh acres, which is also a record.

The extent has hit record levels thanks to favourable circumstances like ample water in irrigation projects, the availability of groundwater, and other efforts like investment support provided under the Rythu Bandhu scheme.

The previous Rabi season record was set in 2020–21 when the overall extent exceeded 68.14 lakh acres and the paddy extent exceeded 52.79 lakh acres.

Since the specifics of the cultivation may not reach the authorities for a few more weeks, agriculture department officials believe that the amount of paddy this season may be the greatest for a State in the nation.

However, given its bitter experience from the previous Rabi season, the State government may find it difficult to manage the record extent, especially of paddy (2021-22).

After the centre refused to accept boiled rice from the State because there were abundant supplies of such rice in the country, the government moved heaven and earth to both procure paddy during the most recent Rabi season and dispose of the processed rice.

The State government has made every attempt to persuade the Centre, arguing that the high percentage of broken grains made it uneconomical to process the paddy grown in high temperatures during the season as raw rice. In this context, on March 1 in New Delhi, the Union Food and Public Distribution authorities and Minister Piyush Goyal are set to meet with the Civil Supplies authorities led by Minister G. Kamalakar.

According to official sources, there may be an opportunity this season to promote cooked rice because the product is in demand all over the world. The amount of paddy that has been raised thus far allows an estimate of the output at 1.5 crore tonnes.

However, given its bitter experience from the previous Rabi season, the State government may find it difficult to manage the record extent, especially of paddy (2021-22).