Centre's red gram procurement cap turns headache for TS

Hyderabad: An expected production of red gram to the tune of 2.7 lakh metric tonnes is giving sleepless nights to the State government. This is against the backdrop of the Centre approving procurement of only 47,500 metric tonnes of red gram in Telangana.

According to the Agriculture department official, there is a huge gap of about 2 lakh metric tonnes between the expected yield of red gram in Telangana and procurement quota approved by the Central government for Telangana.

If the Centre fails to increase the procurement quota then the burden will fall on the State government to figure out ways and means to ensure that farmers will get the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for an additional 2 lakh metric tonnes.

After reviewing the situation, the State Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy has shot off a letter to the Centre, requesting the Union Agriculture Ministry to enhance the procurement quota of red gram.

Niranjan Reddy said that in his letter he has asked the Union government to enhance the procurement quota to another 56,000 metric tonnes over and above the earlier approved 47,500 metric tonnes.

"As the farmers are facing troubles in the agriculture sector, we hope that the Centre will come forward to enhance the quota of procurement to provide the much-needed relief to the farmers cultivating red gram in Telangana," he stated.

Meanwhile, in a review meeting, the Minister asked the newly appointed Principal Secretary for Agriculture Dr B Janardhan Reddy and other senior officials to take steps for the completion of the DCCB and DCMS elections in time after the completion of the ensuing elections of the cooperative societies.

The minister also asked the officials from the Horticulture, Markfed, Agriculture departments to extend necessary assistance to the oil palm farmers and make available oil palm plants to the farmers.

Also, draw the two-lakh metric tonnes of urea allocated to Telangana in time. Niranjan Reddy asked to hold regular review meetings with the representatives of the fertiliser companies and monitor the stocks against the demand and supply of the urea to the farmers without any delay.

The officials were also asked to inspect and speed up the development works of the Koheda Market Yard.