TS govt plans five more red jowar procurement centres

 Telangana | Written by : Suryaa Desk Updated: Fri, Feb 23, 2018, 12:18 PM

Hyderabad: MARKFED will set up five more red jowar procurement centres in erstwile Nizamabad district, taking the total number of such centres to 10 in the district. The centres will procure red jowar farmers at the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of Rs 2,300 announced by the State government.

The new centres will be in addition to the existing five procurement centers in Nizamabad, Armoor, Velpoor, Kamarapally and Balkonda agriculture markets. Armoor legislator A Jeevan Reddy met Agriculture Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy on Thursday and requested him to open more procurement centres to ease pressure on red jowar farmers. The new centres will come up in Donkeshwaram, Aloor, Khudwanapoor, Pipri and Govindapet of Armoor Revenue Division.

The Minister immediately directed MARKFED officials to start purchasing red jowar under MSP of Rs 2,300 from Friday onwards at newly opened procurement centers. Srinivas Reddy said all the red jowar sown during kharif would be purchased under MSP and farmers need not approach middle men with their produce. He said amount would be directly credited into bank accounts of farmers hence they should submit Aadhaar and bank details at the procurement centres or Agriculture Extension Officers (AEOs).

Armoor legislator Jeeva Reddy thanked Agriculture Minister for opening five more new procurement centres. He said Telangana was the only State giving Rs 2,300 per quintal as MSP for red jowar.

Meanwhile, Nizamabad Collector M Rammohan Rao inspected Armoor and Velpoor red jowar purchasing centres and appealed to farmers that they bring their crop after cleaning it. Till now, 3,489 quintal of red jowar has been purchased in Nizamabad district from 100 farmers.