Nellore: A major relief to the lemon farmers as the district Collector Himanshu Shukla has initiated steps for providing Minimum Support Price(MSP) to the lemon crop by exporting fruits to other district in the State.

As part of this efforts, Collector has organized special meeting with horticulture department officials at his chamber on Wednesday.

On this occasion, Collector has enquired about the condition of lemon crop and reasons for drastic come down of lemon prices in the current season.

Officials detailed him that lemon cultivation is being conducted 35,000 acres in the district. They said that apart from crop in 25,000 acres already came to harvesting stage. They narrated that main reason for drastic fall of lemons prices is export of the produce was completely detained to Kerala, Tamilnadu, Karnataka states as those states began cultivating the lemon crop recent years.

On this occasion, officials told the Collector that there was huge demand for lemons in Kurnool, Srikakulam and Visakhapatnam districts.

He immediately contacted those district Collectors as they accepted to import the produce and provide MSP to the farmers. Collector Himanshu Shukla ordered the officials to export the lemons to that districts instead of local consumption.