District Collector B.M. Santosh Emphasizes Smooth and Error-Free Paddy Procurement for Kharif 2024-25

Gadwal: District Collector B.M. Santosh stressed the importance of conducting the procurement of Kharif 2024-25 paddy crop smoothly and without errors. A meeting was held on Tuesday in the Collector’s office with officials and procurement center coordinators to discuss the paddy collection process.

During the meeting, the Collector stated that the state government is handling this paddy procurement initiative with high priority and that it must proceed without any setbacks. He highlighted that, for the first time, a bonus of Rs. 500 per quintal has been announced for fine-grain rice. Therefore, separate procurement centers should be established to avoid mixing coarse-grain rice with fine-grain varieties. Awareness was provided on machines that can distinguish fine-grain rice. He added that the grain length must be below 6 mm and width above 2 mm after removing the husk. Relevant officials were trained via TPT (Technology for Precision Technology) on identifying fine-grain varieties.

The Collector clarified that agricultural officers bear full responsibility for correctly identifying fine-grain rice. He mentioned that 59 procurement centers have been set up across the district to collect the paddy grown by farmers, aiming to ensure a hassle-free procurement process.

Following the meeting, the Collector, alongside other officials, unveiled a poster displaying the support price for the paddy crop.

Present at the meeting were Additional District Collectors Lakshminarayana and Narsing Rao; District Civil Supplies Officer Swami Kumar; District Civil Supplies Manager Vimala; District Marketing Officer Pushpamma; District Transport Officer Venkateshwar Rao; LDM Ayyappa Reddy; Assistant Directors of Agriculture; and mandal agricultural officers.