State govt. to procure rabi maize at support price
The Telangana Government has decided to take up procurement of maize produced this Rabi (Yasangi) season at minimum support price of ₹1,962 per quintal following untimely rains damaging the crop and traders resorting to exploitation of the farming community.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao instructed Minister for Agriculture S. Niranjan Reddy to make arrangements for the procurement of maize by opening purchase centres at the earliest. In turn, the Agriculture Minister directed the authorities to take steps for opening purchase centres mostly in the combined Warangal, Adilabad, Karimnagar, Nizamabad and Khammam districts, where the crop is cultivated on a large scale.
According to Agriculture Department officials, maize is raised in over 6.48 lakh acres this season and the production is estimated to be around 17.37 lakh tonnes. Untimely rains and hailstorm in over half a dozen spells so far have damaged the standing crop, mostly in the harvesting stage and pre-harvesting stage including the stocks brought to market yards.
In the first spell of untimely rains from March 16, the agriculture department had estimated damage in about 1,29,500 acres with more 33% damage/loss in nearly 90,000 acres. The State Government had recently issued orders for disbursement of crop loss at ₹10,000 per acres as announced by the Chief Minister during his examination of crop loss.
Agricultural Marketing Department officials stated that the crop that was brought to markets on Thursday commanded price in the range of ₹1,582 per quintal to ₹2,174 per quintal in different markets.
Enumeration of crop damage/loss in the lateral spells of untimely rain including the present spell is yet to be completed. The Chief Minister has instructed the Chief Secretary earlier this week to take up assessment of crop damage for payment of compensation/input loss at the rate of ₹10,000 per acre already announced.
Recommended for you
