Jute industries will benefit farmers: KTR

Hyderabad: Industries Minister KT Rama Rao on Monday said the jute mills coming up in three districts of the State would be beneficial to farmers and the youth.

Replying to a member’s queries during Question Hour in the State Assembly, he said an agreement was entered with three companies – Gloster Limited in Warangal, MBG Commodities in Rajanna Sircilla and Kaleshwaram Agro Private Limited in Kamareddy for setting up the jute mills.

Since there was a severe shortage of gunny bags when the lockdown was imposed to contain the spread of Covid-19 in 2020, Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao came up with the idea of setting up mills in Telangana instead of procuring gunny bags from West Bengal and Bangladesh.

“The Chief Minister asked Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy and me to hold discussions with the companies that are into gunny bag manufacturing and encourage them to set up their units in Telangana by giving them subsidies,” Rama Rao said.

Accordingly, the three companies came forward to invest Rs 887 crore and as many as 10,448 people would get direct employment. In the first seven years, the government will purchase 100 per cent bags produced by the companies. After five years, 75 per cent of purchases would be from these three companies and after eight years, 50 per cent of purchases would be made with a buyback guarantee.

Over 15 crore gunny bags would be manufactured by these companies as against the existing demand of 27 crore bags. “If we purchase 15 crore bags, there is a need to get more bags from outside,” he explained. A transportation subsidy would also be given as jute must be procured from Bihar and Bangladesh.

As part of crop diversification, the government was intending to encourage farmers to cultivate jute and link them with the three companies.

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