Telangana government to procure additional maize, jowar and sunflower stocks

The Telangana government has decided to procure additional maize, jowar and sunflower stocks following protests by farmers and Opposition parties over procurement delays. The State allocated additional funds for procurement after the Centre failed to respond to repeated appeals for assistance.

Hyderabad: Heeding to the pressure exerted by farming community and opposition parties campaign over the inordinate delay in procurement, the State government has decided to procure the additional maize, jowar and sunflower stocks from farmers.

The Congress government initially wanted the BJP-led Union government to procure the additional stocks.

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However, with the Union government failing to respond to the State government’s appeals, it has now decided to procure the stocks on its own, Agriculture Minister Tummala Nageswara Rao said.

Due to the dealy in procurement, maize and jowar farmers faced lot of hardships. Compounding their woes, the unseasonal rains that have been lashing different parts of the State, left the stocks soaked and damaged, resulting in additional losses to the farmers.

The farming community staged protests and demanded the State government to procure the stocks immediately without any further delay.

Accordingly, the government has now allocated Rs.1,800 crore in addition to the Rs.4,000 crore sanctioned for maize procurement. In view of bumper maize yield this season, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy has taken this decision, the Minister said.

He further said the State government was prepared for procuring the jowar stocks with Rs.1,100 crore. Likewise, the sunflower stocks would also be procured 25 percent in excess, he announced.

Instructions were issued to officials to complete district-wise jowar procurement exercise. All measures should be taken to ensure there was no inconvenience to farmers, the Minister directed officials.