VIJAYAWADA: Claiming that the State government created a new record in implementation of welfare schemes, Agriculture Minister K Kannababu on Monday said that it took several key decisions for the benefit of farmers. Speaking to mediapersons in the Secretariat, he said Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy had given instructions to further increase the number of procurement centres in case of high yield to purchase foodgrains from farmers at support price.
The government had set up 109 procurement centres for black gram, 101 centres for bengal gram, 98 centres for red gram, 67 centres for green gram and 26 centres for turmeric.
The government is aware of plight of tomato growers in Chittoor, Anantapur and Kadapa due to lack of remunerative price for their produce. Steps would be taken to ensure remunerative price for tomato and onion, he said.
Civil Supplies Commissioner Kona Sasidhar said that the government set up 1,820 paddy procurement centres in the State to see that farmers do not face any hassles in selling their produce at support price.
The government has so far procured 44 lakh metric tonnes of paddy in Kharif marketing season.
The farmers are receiving spot payment in most of the case and in some cases there is a slight delay due to clearance of dues by the Centre. The matter was taken to the notice of Union Civil supplies Minister, he said.
Sasidhar said the second and third quarter funds are due to the State government. That is the reason for the delay in making payments over the past two weeks.
Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy held a high-level review meeting in this regard and directed the Civil Supplies Department to take advances from banks and Nabard to clear the dues of the farmers, he said.
Stating that the dues to farmers will be cleared by Wednesday, he said it was not fair on the part of a section of the media to blow up the issue.
He urged the farmers to call toll-free number 1902 if they face any problem in selling their paddy at the procurement centres. Paddy procurement for the Rabi season will begin on April 1, the Agriculture Minister added.
Number of procurement centres