Niranjan Reddy urges Centre to increase crop procurement limit

Agriculture Minister found fault with the Centre for purchasing only 25% of annual crop at MSP after calculating average yield of the last five years, in the wake of the increasing yield due to TS govts' farm-friendly policies

Hyderabad: Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy emphasised the need for the Centre to change its policy with regards to imposing restrictions on crop procurement at Minimum Support Price (MSP). He found fault with the Centre for purchasing only 25 per cent of annual crop at MSP after calculating average yield of the last five years, in the wake of the increasing yield due to farm-friendly policies of the Telangana government.

The Minister who participated in a high-level meeting on agricultural activities in the State here on Monday, decided to write to the Centre to increase the procurement limit for redgram crop at MSP. He wanted the Centre to take up crop procurement on the basis of the current year’s yield.

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Officials were instructed to make arrangements for procurement of redgram which was cultivated in about 10.8 lakh following the call given by Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao for regulated farming. The Markfed was instructed to open procurement centres in Narayanpet by this weekend as the redgram crop is ready for harvesting in the district.

Niranjan Reddy appreciated the initiative taken by farmers of Hajipur in Mancherial district where the latter had their paddy milled and sold it in the market for a profit. He pointed out that if the farmers can hire a mobile milling machine to mill their paddy in their fields, they can earn remunerative price by selling rice at a higher price. He welcomed the initiative and vowed to encourage more farmers to follow the suit.

“We have been instructing farmers not to sell their fine variety paddy for low price and our market predictions are yielding results. At present, fine variety paddy is being sold for Rs 2,200 to Rs 2,400 per quintal which was far higher than the MSP of Rs 1,888 per quintal,” the Minister said. He added that about 300 more cotton purchase centres were being opened across the State to purchase cotton.

As against 6.39 lakh tonnes purchased as on date last year, the Cotton Corporation of India had already procured 10.2 lakh tonnes till date this year.

Agriculture Secretary B Janardhan Reddy, Marketing director Laxmi Bai, Telangana State Markfed managing director V Bhaskara Chary, Telangana State Agros managing director and other officials were present.

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