NALGONDA: Allegations are rife that the millers are causing trouble to farmers by not purchasing the grain at the MSP (minimum support price) fixed by the Central government. The farmers bring two types of paddy to the purchase centres, but the millers are not buying the grain from IKP centres, due to a high moisture content.
If the farmers attempt to directly sell it to the millers, they are offering Rs 1,600 to Rs 1,700 per quintal.
Karingula Narsimha of Vemulapally village told TNIE that while the government has announced an MSP of Rs 2,320, they are suffering financially as the millers are buying them at lower prices.
Bejawada Srinivas, a farmer of Miryalaguda said that the officials of the Civil Supplies department and millers are colluding and doing injustice to the farmers. He said that if they questioned millers about the rate, they would not buy their grain.
Meanwhile, IKP centre organisers said that farmers are bringing fine BPT type of paddy with 20 to 30 per cent moisture to IKP and other buying centres. According to government regulations, they will buy if it has below 17 per cent moisture, they said.
A rice miller from Miryalaguda said that most of the people in the district used Mahendra seeds.
For this reason, they admitted that they were buying from the farmers at a lower price. Because of the low quality of rice, retailers return the rice to them. He said that MSP is being paid for good quality paddy.
The district civil supplies officials told TNIE that if the moisture is high, the farmers are asked to dry the paddy and sell it in government procurement centres and get MSP. Meanwhile, the farmers in Miryalaguda, Vemulapally staged rastaroko demanding that the millers purchase their paddy as per the MSP.