Telangana has moved closer to achieving a record-breaking rabi paddy procurement season, with the Civil Supplies department purchasing 50.01 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) of paddy from farmers as of May 23, which is about 85% of the 58.79 LMT paddy that has arrived at procurement centres.

According to the latest procurement status report for rabi 2025–26, Telangana recorded an estimated production of 140.81 LMT from 65.91 lakh acres, the highest-ever rabi cultivation area in the State. Against a State purchase target of 90 LMT, arrivals are expected to touch 70 to 75 LMT during the season.

The government has opened 8,575 paddy procurement centres (PPCs) across the State and deployed 12,937 vehicles for transportation and logistics. Of the total purchases, 38.39 LMT is coarse variety paddy while 11.62 LMT is fine variety.

The State has already released ₹8,749.82 crore towards minimum support price (MSP) payments, accounting for 73% of the total dues. Pending MSP payments stand at ₹3,176.75 crore. The department said payments are being processed in eight spells daily, including on weekends and public holidays, to ensure speedy disbursal to farmers.

Officials said around 20.86 crore gunny bags, including 11.25 crore new and 9.61 crore reused bags, have been positioned for operations.

Civil Supplies officials said 8.78 LMT of paddy that has already arrived at centres is yet to be purchased, mainly due to heavy arrivals over the past few days. The government has fixed a daily procurement target of 3 LMT and expects to clear the pending stock within 72 hours. Another 16 LMT is expected to arrive from late-harvest districts over the next 10 days.

The report noted that procurement operations this season have already surpassed the previous year’s performance. Telangana procured 74.22 LMT during Rabi 2024–25, compared to 47.98 LMT in Rabi 2023–24.

Among districts, Nizamabad emerged as the best-performing major procurement district with 97% procurement of expected arrivals, followed by Nalgonda 87%, Kamareddy 91% and Narayanpet 98% of procurement of arrived stock. Jagtial, Nalgonda and Nirmal currently have the highest pending stocks awaiting purchase.

Districts such as Nagarkurnool, Vikarabad, Mahabubnagar, Jayashankar Bhupalpally and Warangal are expected to witness significant late arrivals due to delayed harvesting.

Officials said several operational challenges affected procurement this season, including a sharp rise in maize procurement, shortage of hamalies due to elections in West Bengal and delayed harvests in Bihar, extreme heatwave conditions and intermittent unseasonal rains.

To overcome these hurdles, the government deployed over 12,500 vehicles, night-shift operations at PPCs and mills, addition of 80 new rice mills with 2.82 LMT extra milling capacity, hiring of 7 LMT additional storage space and continuous MSP fund releases even during holidays.

The Civil Supplies department also stated that 47.70 LMT of purchased paddy has already been shifted to mills and storage points, accounting for 95% of the purchased stock, while 90% of miller acknowledgements have been completed.