With the untimely rains damaging the crops, particularly paddy, in the harvesting stage as also the produce brought to procurement centres in frequent spells since the second half of March, the State Government has requested Food Corporation of India (FCI) to relax fair average quality (FAQ) norms of moisture content to 20% from 17% to help farmers.
According to Minister for Civil Supplies Gangula Kamalakar, the State Government has written to FCI in this regard already as damage due to untimely rains was extensive and the loss was up to 100% in the case of many farmers. Against the regular damage of paddy up to 20% due to untimely rains in the rabi season, the damage this year was huge both in the fields and at procurement centres.
He stated that orders had already been issued for custom milling of 1.28 lakh tonnes procured this season as boiled rice in case of paddy soaked in untimely rain and dried before procurement. He explained that procurement was faster by over 130% this rabi season compared to the last rabi as 7.51 lakh tonnes paddy worth ₹1,350 crore had been procured this year against 3.23 lakh tonnes last year till April-end.
