Groundnut farmers to get MSP in Wanaparthy

Wanaparthy: For helping the ground farmers get minimum support price for their produce, Niranjan Reddy, Vice Chairman of Planning Commission, government of Telangana inaugurated a new Groundnut procurement centre at the Agriculture Market yard in Wanaparthy district on Friday. 

Speaking on the occasion Reddy said the State government is very much concerned about the farmers’ welfare and to help them get good returns for their agriculture produce, Harish Rao, Minister for Irrigation and Marketing has embarked on opening various procurement centres for different crops across the State. 

“We are happy to announce a new Groundnut procurement centre in Wanaparthy district. As majority farmers in Wanaparthy and the surrounding districts produce Groundnut on a large scale, we felt setting up a procurement centre by NAFED would more appropriate to help the farmers get minimum support price for their produce,” said Niranjan Reddy. 

Expressing their happiness for getting a new government procurement centre, the farmers said that all these days they were incurring huge losses as the middle men, brokers and the traders formed a syndicate and fleeced them by not giving proper price for their produce. 

“After a long wait we have finally got the government procurement centre for Wanaparthy.  We are happy the government had announced a Minimum support price of Rs 4,450 per quintal of Groundnut. Earlier, we were forced to buy our produce at Rs 3,500 to Rs 4,000 for the best quality of Groundnut,” said Banavath Narasihma, of Korlakunta village from Pangal Mandal. 

According to Agriculture officials last year Wanaparthy district had emerged as the largest producer of Groundnut in Telangana and they are expecting this year also the district will surpass the last year’s record.  

“We are happy that ICRISAT authorities have regarded the groundnut produced in Wanaparthy distinct is the best quality groundnut which is eligible to be exported to foreign countries. Out of 20 samples sent to ICRISAT 19 samples have been qualified as export quality,” informed Niranjan Reddy. 

Earlier, the middle men and brokers used to go directly at the agriculture fields of the farmers and make a deal with the farmer to a very low price and deprive them of best price in the market. But now with the government setting up a new groundnut procurement centre, it will help many farmers to get best price for their produce.