In view of surge in coronavirus cases and the resultant health hazard it posed to farmers, the State government has decided to procure paddy cultivated in the ongoing second crop at 6,408 centres in villages like last year.
This was finalised at a meeting of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao with senior officials of Agriculture, Marketing and Civil Supplies on Monday.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Rao directed Principal Finance Secretary K. Ramakrishna Rao, who was also present, to arrange by Tuesday evening bank guarantee for raising ₹ 20,000 crore for the purpose of lifting the stocks. He also asked Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar to hold an emergency video conference with district collectors for immediate opening of procurement centres.
Agriculture Minister S. Niranjan Reddy was advised to remain in Hyderabad to monitor the opening of centres and procurement process. All precautions to see that the farmers did not face any hardship must be taken by coordinating the efforts of Agriculture, Marketing and Civil Supplies departments, the Minister, Chief Secretary and other officials were told.
Mr. Rao insisted that guidelines for payment of minimum support price should strictly be followed. Dried up grains free of waste and dust and moisture not exceeding 17 % should be brought to the procurement centres. The farmers should be advised against the danger of higher moisture.
He also advised officials to arrange the required 20 crore gunny bags at the procurement centres.
Sow cotton
The farmers should be geared up to cultivate cotton over 75 to 80 lakh acres in the next kharif as the crop in the State had good demand in international market. The cotton was also of good quality and high yield which assured good price for farmers. Arrangements to procure the required quanity of seed should start immediately, he instructed Principal Agriculture Secretary B. Janardhan Reddy.
At the same time, steps should be taken to cultivate red gram over 20 to 25 lakh acres. There will be high yield of cotton and red gram if the crops were ensured wetting.
Mr. Rao said paddy was cultivated over 52.76 lakh acres in the current rabi which was likely to result in the yield of coarse variety to an extent of 1.17 crore tonnes and 21 lakh tonnes of fine variety of grains.
He asked the Chief Secretary to identify land for leasing out to Central Warehousing Corporation as it had expressed readiness to construct additional godowns for storage of food grains.
