2,395 litres of water for 1kg of paddy: Min

Hyderabad: Agriculture minister Singireddy Niranjan Reddy said 2,395 litres of water is used in Telangana to cultivate one kg of paddy.
Answering a question in the legislative council, the minister said water requirement (as per world standards) for producing one kg of rice is 2,300 litres. “In India, the requirement ranges from 1,786 litres to 3,683 litres,” he said.
The minister, however, said there was no truth in the claims that 5,000 litres of water is being used for production of one kg rice in Telangana.
He said that in the low-land field methods using borewells, water was saved up to 30% in stretches of erstwhile Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Warangal, Khammam, Nalgonda, Mahbubnagar, Rangareddy and Medak districts. “Efforts are on to involve international institutes and take up cultivation of paddy with less water usage,” he said.
He said Telangana Sona and Batukamma varieties are less dependent on water. “Research is also being conducted to get new varieties of paddy seed,” he added.