Harish Rao asks farmers to sell black gram at 5,400 a quintal

Hyderabad: Marketing & Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao exhorted farmers to sell their black gram produce in the market at Rs 5,400 per quintal.

During a meeting with Marketing & Agriculture officials here on Tuesday, Harish Rao said the government would set up 14 purchase centres to procure black gram. He asked the officials of NAFED to press the MarkFed wing to procure 6,680 tons of black gram through the purchase centres.

The Minister said the farmers should not take hasty step and sell black gram for not less than Rs 5,400 per quintal. The price of this commodity in the open market was ranging from Rs 2,500 to Rs 4,615 per quintal, he said. The Centre announced minimum support price (MSP) and gave exemption to Telangana for immediate schedule date for procuring the produce, he said.

The government’s efforts proved fruitful with the Centre giving MSP to black gram as that of green gram to benefit the farmers in the State, he claimed. He also said they sent a special messenger to the Centre to seek relaxation of norms of quality in the procurement of green gram from the open markets.

The Collectors and Marketing officials should continuously monitor procurement of cotton of Kharif season and submit a report of details of crop production area-wise by October 5, he said, adding that efforts were being made for procuring the cotton since last June.

The Centre had agreed to set up 143 purchase centres to procure cotton in the State, he said and asked it to set up more ginning mills for the purpose. Farmers should sell their produce only for MSP and not less than that, he appealed.

The Collectors should ensure that farmers get their amounts in their accounts within two to three days and work for six days in a week to procure cotton and make arrangements to notify ginning mills at 84 cotton purchase centres for processing on rent. It was likely that 111 centres would be set up, he added.