NALGONDA: Millers who initially offered Rs 4,000 to Rs 4,400 per quintal for fine paddy at farmers’ threshing floors have now cut the procurement price to Rs 3,200 per quintal for grain delivered to their mills, prompting farmers across Nalgonda district to stage protests.
Despite drought conditions caused by the El Nino effect and the Nagarjuna Sagar Reservoir holding less than half its capacity, farmers cultivated fine paddy across nearly 2.50 lakh acres during the Kharif season. Acute water scarcity, however, reduced yields to around 40%.
Anticipating strong demand for fine rice, millers and private traders initially competed to buy the produce, even offering high prices for wet grain.
Farmers preferred these offers over the government’s MSP of Rs 2,461 per quintal.
However, when the main harvest reached rice mills in Miryalaguda around Diwali, millers reduced their offers to Rs 3,200–3,500 per quintal.
On Sunday evening, farmers arriving in more than 10 tractors unloaded their paddy and staged a sit-in outside a prominent rice mill in Miryalaguda, demanding that millers honour their initial offer of over Rs 4,000 per quintal.
A local miller said traders had initially offered higher rates due to soaring fine rice prices in the open market.
However, he claimed government-imposed caps on sale prices had made it difficult for millers to continue paying those rates.
Following the protests, Civil Supplies Department officials held discussions with farmers and millers and persuaded the latter to procure fine paddy at Rs 3,800 per quintal.
Both sides accepted the revised rate, following which farmers called off their protests.
