Minister for Agriculture Tummala Nageswara Rao on Sunday stated that Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy has taken a decision to allot ₹1,800 crore more for procurement of maize in addition to ₹4,000 crore allotted already for the purpose since the Centre has not responded to the State’s pleas to take up procurement of maize and include the crop under price support scheme.
In a statement, he said it was also decided at Saturday’s Cabinet meeting that procurement of sunflower would be enhanced to beyond 25% of the total produce this season, the quantity fixed by the Centre, and also complete procurement of jowar so that farmers were not left to the mercy of traders.
He explained that maize was cultivated in about 16.37 lakh acres and at an average yield of 26.57 quintals per acre the production was estimated at about 43.49 lakh tonnes. To ensure support price to farmers the government had already provided guarantee of ₹4,173 crore to banks for raising loans by Markfed and it was decided to extend guarantee for another ₹1,867 crore for procuring another 6.53 lakh tonnes. With the help of 354 purchase centres, about 12.85 lakh tonnes of maize was already procured from 2.33 lakh farmers.
Stating that the BRS government had spent ₹5,063 crore on maize procurement during its 10-year rule, Mr. Nageswara Rao said the Congress government was spending about 6,000 crore this season alone. Against the open market price up to ₹1,850 per quintal, the government was giving support price of ₹2,400 per quintal.
On jowar (hybrid) procurement, he said the government had opened 81 purchase centres in Adilabad, Sangareddy, Kamareddy, Medak and Vikarabad so far to procure the produce with ₹1,100 crore with support price of ₹3,699 per quintal against ₹2,000 being offered by the traders.
The previous government had spent only ₹374 crore on jowar purchase during 10 years, but the Congress government had spent ₹800 crore in the last (Kharif) season itself and another ₹1,100 crore this season. The Minister said the State had decided to procure 10,175 tonnes on its own beyond the 3,690 tonnes quota agreed to be procured by the Centre at a support price of ₹7,721 per quintal against the open market price of ₹5,376 per quintal.
Source : Thehindu
