The A.P. Seeds Corporation and the Department of Agriculture is making all arrangements in Anantapur and Sri Sathya Sai districts to sell the subsidised groundnut seed at the Rythu Bharosa Kendras from May 25 or 26, though the total quantum of proposed sale has come down from 1 lakh quintals in 2022 Kharif to 78,000 quintals in the current season. In Sri Sathya Sai district, the government proposes to sell 1,00,000 quintals.
In the undivided Anantapur district, about 3.9 lakh quintals was sold in 2016, but it has been coming down year after year as farmers had diversified into other crops as groundnut was no more remunerative for them. In 2022 Kharif, undivided Anantapur district saw a maximum demand of just above 2 lakh quintals. In the current season, the government has pegged it at 1.78 lakh quintals. The per kg price of K-6 variety groundnut seed, which was ₹50 in 2016, rose to ₹51.48 in 2022 kharif and to ₹55.80 for the current year.
The K-1812 variety, which was introduced last year through subsidised sales, has been priced at ₹48.8 per kg. The market sale value of K-6 is higher compared with K-1812. As such, the majority of the farmers prefer the K-6 variety.
Joint director (JD), agriculture, B. Chandra Naik said 15,000 quintals had been readied so far at the RBKs and registration by 13,000 farmers was done for above 15,000 quintals.
Anantapur Joint Collector Ketan Garg, along with A.P. Seeds Manager Dhanalakshmi and the JD, inspected the groundnut seed processing plants in the district over the past three days to ensure that quality of the seeds was not compromised.
