Responding positively to the request of Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, the Centre has agreed to procure another one-lakh tonnes of redgram under the price support scheme in the State. It would be in addition to 51,625 tonnes already agreed to be procured.
According to officials of the Agriculture Department, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar has agreed to the Chief Minister’s request to procure another one-lakh tonnes of redgram at the minimum support price of ₹5,800 per quintal based on the fair average quality of the produce brought to the procurement centres.
In a letter addressed to the Union Minister recently, the Chief Minister is understood to have explained that extent of cultivation of redgram and its production had increased in Telangana owing to favourable seasonal conditions and improved irrigation facilities. He is said to have explained that redgram was cultivated in about 2.86 lakh hectares during the kharif season and the production would be around 3 lakh tonnes, although the conservative estimates of the second advance estimates of crop production put it at 2.07 lakh tonnes.
Minister for Agriculture S. Niranjan Reddy has thanked the Chief Minister and the Union Minister on behalf of the farming community for enhancing the redgram procurement under the price support scheme by another one-lakh tonnes.
