Do not cultivate paddy in Yasangi, Niranjan Reddy urges farmers

Hyderabad: Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy on Saturday urged farmers not to cultivate paddy during Yasangi season and instead he wanted them to take up alternate crops, including cotton cultivation. Telangana Government will not procure paddy produced during Yasangi. Farmers, who have tie ups with seed companies or rice millers can cultivate paddy but do […]

Hyderabad: Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy on Saturday urged farmers not to cultivate paddy during Yasangi season and instead he wanted them to take up alternate crops, including cotton cultivation.

Telangana Government will not procure paddy produced during Yasangi. Farmers, who have tie ups with seed companies or rice millers can cultivate paddy but do not have any expectations that government would procure paddy during Yasangi, the Minister said categorically here on Saturday.

He also urged farmers to advance the paddy cultivation by a month during Yasangi. Addressing media persons, the Agriculture Minister stated that State Government would procure every grain produced by farmers during Vanakalam season.

“Even if Food Corporation of India (FCI) does not buy paddy during Vanakalam, State Government will procure all paddy varieties, including coarse and fine produced during Vanakalam,” assured Niranjan Reddy.

Coming down heavily on FCI’s decision not to procure paddy during Yasangi, he said Central Government was trying to escape from its responsibility of procuring every grain produced by farmers.

“As per constitution, it is the responsibility of the Centre to buy the agricultural produce. Instead it was washing its hands and blaming the State Government’s,” Niranjan Reddy charged.

The Centre was yet to lift five lakh metric tonnes of stocks pertaining to last Yasangi season’s procurement from Telangana. All these stocks were piled up in the godowns, he said adding “This is example for Central Government’s irresponsibility and planning.”

Appealing to farmers not to fall prey for the false propaganda of opposition parties, the Agriculture Minister said a few parties were deliberately trying to instigate farmers against the Government.

“If the State BJP leaders are committed to farmers’ welfare let them exert pressure on the Central Government and get written orders on paddy procurement,” said Niranjan Reddy.

He further charged that deliberate attempts were being made to handover the country’s agricultural sector into the corporate companies’ purview. The Central government’s decisions not to purchase stocks were part of this conspiracy, he alleged.

Since last four months, the State Government has been creating awareness among farmers on the challenges in paddy cultivation. Farmers can take up cotton cultivation as there was good demand for Telangana cotton in the national and international markets, he explained.

Civil Supplies Minister G Kamalakar said State Government was prepared to set up 6,570 procurement centres across the State and already 2,142 centres have been operational. So far, 2.36 lakh metric tonnes of paddy has been procured from 3,565 farmers, he said.

Regarding the token system, the Civil Supplies Minister said it was a practice adopted by few private rice millers in Suryapet and few others in erstwhile Nalgonda district.

As many as 256 centres were set up in erstwhile Nalgonda and so far not a single grain was brought to these centres. As per the harvest and arrival of stocks, more procurement centres will be established across the State to ensure there was no inconvenience to farmers, he said.

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