VIJAYAWADA: Chief Secretary Dinesh Kumar has directed officials to purchase red gram at Rs 5,450 per quintal. Though the price of a quintal of red gram in open market is at Rs 4,200 per quintal, the Centre announced Rs 5,450 as minimum support price for a quintal.
The Chief Secretary instructed the Markfed officials to take necessary steps for the procurement of red gram by paying the said price to the farmers.
He said that around one lakh farmers will benefit to a tune of `140 crore in the State with the Centre announcing minimum support price for red gram.
Markfed Managing Director Madhusudhan Reddy said that they have sent proposals to the Centre to purchase one lakh metric tonnes of red gram.
“But, the Centre agreed to procure only 45,200 metric tonnes of red gram and we are setting up 78 procurement centres in seven districts for purchasing the red gram,” he added.