Telangana Government to buy paddy, cotton grown in Kharif

Hyderabad: To ensure remunerative price to the farming community, the State government has decided to purchase the whole of paddy and cotton cultivated in the Kharif season. Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on Tuesday instructed the officials concerned to purchase the entire paddy grown in the State by setting up 6,000 purchasing centres.

The Chief Minister held a high-level review meeting at Pragathi Bhavan on Tuesday on issue pertaining to purchase of Kharif crops. The officials informed the CM that crops were cultivated at a record level in 134.87 lakh acres and of this, paddy was cultivated in 52.77 lakh acres, cotton in 60.36 lakh acres and red gram in 10.78 lakh acres.

The Chief Minister said that paddy would be procured completely through IKP centres, cooperative societies and marketing department. He urged the farmers to not to go in for any distress sale. If the paddy was with below 17 per cent moisture, the government would give Rs 1,888 per quintal for A grade variety, Rs 1,868 per quintal for B grade variety as the minimum support price.

He said that the guidelines regarding the purchase of paddy would be released in a day or two and agriculture, marketing and Civil Supplies department would work in coordination on the matter. The CM said efforts were on to procure cotton through Cotton Corporation of India. Continuous discussions have been taking place with CCI in this regard. The CM also instructed the officials to clear the doubts of farmers through the call centres.