Farmer should get best price: CM KCR

Hyderabad: To ensure agriculture sector become a profitable profession in near future, Telangana state government has decided to evolve a comprehensive and integrated strategy to provide minimum support price (MSP) to farmers with the intervention of national and international competitors which included private persons and the state government too.

The government proposed merger of Horticulture, Marketing, Civil Supplies and other connected wings with the Agriculture department. To make this merger possible, it was understood to revamp official machinery for achieving the goals set by the government in strengthening the farming sector.

Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on Tuesday held a high-level meeting with officials at Pragati Bhavan on the provision of minimum support price to the farmers.

Keeping in view the future supply of irrigated water to 1.25 crore acres and developing the irrigation sector accordingly, he said a strong strategy needs to be evolved to provide MSP to the farmers as the agriculture produce will be increased manifold in the coming years.

The chief minister instructed the officials to identify national and international competitors in the marketing of agriculture products and work out a strategy to face the competition.

The CM also suggested that the government should become a vibrant purchaser of agriculture products and evolve a mechanism to see that the private persons also pay minimum support price to the farmer.

The CM wanted a close coordination of Agriculture, Horticulture, Marketing and Civil Supplies departments to extend MSP to the farmers.

KCR instructed the Agriculture department to analyse the food needs in Telangana, farm production to the meet the local demand, imports and exports of vegetables and fruits, and motivate farmers to cultivate profitable crops.

He wanted a field-level report on the farm issues within ten days.

Stressing on the importance to establish crop colonies, the CM instructed the officials to participate in the government policy in such a way that every agriculture product produced by the farmer invariably gets more than the minimum support price.

KCR also made it clear that if necessary, the marketing department would directly purchase produce from the farmer for which the government will stand surety to the Directorate of Marketing.

"In Telangana, paddy, maize and cotton are produced as main crop. There are also large number of orchids. Some other crops are also grown here and there. However, these crops are not scientifically organised. Agriculture produce is not in tune with market conditions and variations.

Farmer gets better price if only productivity and quality is improved," the CM observed. "There were 142 municipalities in Telangana and urban population is nearly 50 per cent of the total population.

Vegetable requirement of urban population could be met if they are grown in villages around the towns," he said. KCR underscored the need to create awareness among people about better food habits.

Usage of leafy vegetables and fruits should be encouraged. Doctors are of the opinion that the "Telangana sonalu rice" is better in regulating and preventing diabetics. Such food products should also to be encouraged, he said.