‘Officers will visit villages to buy entire paddy’: KCR messages farmers

The Telangana government on Wednesday announced that it will purchase the entire stock of not only food grains like paddy and pulses, but also commercial crops like cotton, directly from farmers even as the Central government is going all out to educate the farmers about the benefits of the newly enacted farm laws.

Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao held a high-level review meeting with officials of the agriculture and marketing departments to discuss the procurement of agriculture produce from farmers this season.

While the new agriculture act enacted by the Centre says farmers can sell their produce wherever they wanted, the chief minister asked the farmers not to bring their paddy to the markets and face problems. He also assured that the government would ensure minimum support price to the farmers for their produce.

“The entire quantity of paddy produced by farmers this “Vanakalam” (Kharif season) will be purchased by the government departments at the village-level itself. Since there is still Corona fear lingering, various government agencies would be sent to the villages to purchase the entire paddy produced by farmers,” an official statement from the chief minister’s office said, quoting the chief minister.

He instructed that officials purchase the entire paddy in the state by setting up 6,000 purchasing centres and ensure that every grain of paddy is purchased. He reiterated that the government’s aim was to stand by farmers at every stage from extending financial assistance for crop investment to purchasing the produce.

He directed that paddy with less than 17 percent moisture would be purchased by the state government at Rs 1,888 per Quintal MSP for Grade A Variety and Rs 1,868 per Quintal MSP for the Grade B variety.

He instructed the agriculture, marketing and civil supplies department officials to take precautions at every point. He wanted the officials to make an estimate on how much paddy would be available and prepare a purchasing plan accordingly.

KCR also asked the officials to ensure that the farmers get their money on the sale of paddy immediately along with the Bank Guarantees.

Similarly, the chief minister also instructed the authorities to make arrangements for purchase of entire production of red gram (tur dal) from the farmers. He complimented the farmers for cultivating red gram in 10.78 lakh acres as directed under the Regulatory Farming policy of the government.

At the same time, the government would also make arrangements for procurement of cotton through Cotton Corporation of India. “Continuous discussions are taking place with the CCI in this regard,” the chief minister said.

This season, there was a record cultivation of crops in Telangana in 134.87 lakh acres. Of this, paddy was cultivated in 52.77 lakh acres, cotton in 60.36 Lakh acres and red gram in 10.78 lakh acres.

Meanwhile, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitaraman paid a visit to Jakkula Nekkalam village of Gannavaram block in Andhra Pradesh’s Krishna district and explained to local farmers about the benefits of the new agriculture acts enacted by the Centre.

Accompanied by Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Sunil Deodhar, G V L Narasimha Rao, Kanna Lakshminarayana and P V N Madhav, the finance minister interacted with the farmers to know about their cropping pattern, remunerative price for their crops and the market situation.

The farmers told Sitaraman that they were not getting remunerative price for food grains and sugarcane. Stating that they were not getting bank loans for raising sugarcane, they requested that the government take steps for ensuring adequate prices for their crops.

The FM told the farmers that the new act enabled them to sell their produce wherever they get remunerative price. She suggested authorities educate the farmers about the new Acts.

It may be mentioned that the ruling YSR Congress Party in Andhra Pradesh is supporting the new legislation on agriculture and its MPs voted in favour of them in Parliament. On the other hand, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi strongly opposed the new acts.