State to buy corn at MSP from farmers

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao announced that corn would be purchased at the Minimum Support Price (MSP) at the paddy purchasing centres in the villages. The corn would be priced at Rs 1,850 per quintal and the farmers were urged to utilise the opportunity. The CM was upset that though the government had asked the farmers not to cultivate maize in the rainy season to benefit the corn crop some farmers had cultivated maize. "So even though the government has no responsibility to buy the corn the government will buy it keeping in mind the welfare of the farmers, " the CM said.

“During last summer, the government, through the Markfed, purchased nine lakh tonnes of corn and spent Rs 1,668 crore. Since the corn purchased did not get any price in the open market it was auctioned. The government recovered only Rs 823 crore through the auction and incurred a loss of Rs 845 crore. Markfed purchased the corn at Rs 1,760 per quintal. With procurement and transportation costs, the cost went up to Rs 2,000 per quintal. But at the auction Markfed got only Rs 1,150 per quintal. It incurred a loss of Rs 850 per quintal. Since there is no market for the corn across the country, it had to be sold at a lower price,” the CM explained.

“The Telangana state is the only state which is implementing several pro-farmer, pro-agriculture policies and schemes. The state is working with welfare of the farmers as the sole aim. Coordinating with the farmers the government is going to implement, for the first time, the Regulatory Farming Policy. Also, one lakh threshing floors were created in the farmlands to dry crops and 2,600 Rythu Vedikas are being constructed. In the spirit of all such measures we have decided to buy the corn from the farmers,” the CM said.