Sell paddy at procurement centres: Official to farmers

PNS|Vijayawada

Andhra Pradesh Civil Supplies, Consumers’ Affairs Commissioner H Arun Kumar has said that the farmers should sell Kharif paddy at the paddy procurement centres and get the Minimum Support Price (MSP) from the State government. This year the State government will directly procure paddy from the farmers paying MSP, he said.

Arun Kumar visited the YSR Rythu Bharosa Kendram at Punadipadu of Kankipadu mandal in Krishna district on Thursday. He inspected the paddy purchasing process at the RBK and interacted with the farmers to understand the difficulties they were facing during procurement.

Speaking on the occasion, the official said that the State government had decided to avoid middlemen during paddy procurement at the RBKs and that only farmers would get MSP from the State government. In previous years, paddy procurement centres were commanded by the millers and they were getting MSP for paddy instead of farmers. So the government has decided to pay MSP directly to the farmers, he added.

Also, the State government has made changes in the procurement process for the benefit of the farmers. After the completion of harvesting, if the moisture level is 17 per cent and the remaining parameters are as per norms, the RBK staff will purchase paddy directly from the farm. In addition, they would be providing hamalies and transport facilities for transporting paddy to the rice mills, he said.

He made it clear that farmers may sell their paddy yield as per the government-decided MSP or at a price of their choice to any person or trader. “If they do not get MSP, then the State government will give support to the farmers in paddy procurement. The government is taking all precautionary steps so that farmers do not face any obstacles during the paddy procurement,” he said.

“If any official forces farmers to sell the paddy, the State government will suspend the concerned staff,” he warned. He made it clear that no complaint should be raised in this regard, and also asked technical assistants not to misuse the ‘key’.

Later, he suggested that the farmers should not cultivate Rabi paddy keeping in mind the previous years’ problems. He said it was best to cultivate other crops during the Rabi season. Farmers have got a huge yield against what they expected, he said.

Civil Supplies District Manager Sridhar, DSO Parvathi, Kankipadu Mandal Tahsildar Satish, ZPTC member B Koteswara Rao, Penamaluru AMC chairman M Rama Chandra Rao, Punadipadu Sarpanch M Koteswara Rao and Mandal Agricultural Officer Kiran were present.