Harvested paddy still waiting at procurement centres in erstwhile Karimnagar

Though the procurement of the crop has been delayed due to various reasons, unseasonal rains are worrying the farmers

Karimnagar: Nearly half of the paddy harvested and brought to paddy procurement centres is yet to be procured with the entire process moving extremely slowly in the erstwhile Karimnagar district.

Approximately, 5.11 lakh metric tonnes of paddy was procured as against the target of 10 lakh metric tonnes. Though the procurement of the crop has been delayed due to various reasons, unseasonal rains are worrying the farmers.

In the wake of forecast of untimely rains, farmers had harvested the paddy earlier than usual to protect crops from rains and shifted the crop to paddy procurement centres even before the opening of the centres. That was not all. Much before the centres were opened, many farmers were waiting there with their crop, some for weeks.

Though the weathermen had forecast unseasonal reason, the government machinery failed to supply adequate tarpaulins to farmers. As a result, a huge quantity of crops stocked in the paddy procurement centres was soaked in rain water in many areas in the district.

The process was also delayed due to a shortage of lorries to transport the paddy to rice mills. Though the crop was weighed and packed in gunny bags, it had to wait in the centres for days together due to lack of transportation facility.

Even this packed paddy got soaked in rain in many places. Later, to overcome the problem, tractors were also engaged in the transportation of crops.

While 1.40 lakh metric tonnes of paddy was procured in Karimnagar, 1.51 lakh MT was procured in Jagtial. In Peddapalli, it was 1.15 lakh LMT and 1.05 lakh metric tonnes in Rajanna-Sircilla district.