Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has expressed concern over the “retrograde” policies of the Central government which were resulting in distress in the farm sector instead of encouraging agriculture, which was the primary occupation of a major chunk of the population.
The Chief Minister lamented that the Centre was discouraging farmers rather than encouraging them. It was painful to see that the “irrational” policies being implemented by the Centre were resulting in decline in agriculture productivity. He said that his government was committed to see that the farm sector was encouraged further and steps were being taken accordingly to further improve the productivity. With the kharif season set to commence soon, steps should be taken to promote cultvation of cotton, chillies, pulses and other crops.
In this context, Mr. Rao said demand for cotton produced in the State was on the rise as production from China was coming down. Cotton was already commanding price of ₹ 10,000 to ₹ 13,000 a quintal and this was set to rise in the coming days. Chillies too saw increase in demand in the market fetching ₹ 42,000 a quintal and Agriculture department should not neglect pulses like red gram which were commanding huge prices in the market.
He directed the officials concerned to check spurious seeds and take the cooperation of the police in this direction. Flying squads should be constituted in advance to check manufacture and sale of spurious seeds.
The Chief Minister enquired about the progress of the procurement operations and officials informed him that the process had been speeded up. Steps were taken to ensure adequate quantities of gunny bags, transport vehicles and human resources. It was planned to open 6,983 procurement centres across the State of which 536 centres started functioning. The department had so far procured 1,200 metric tonnes of paddy so far.
