The Chief Minister K Rosaiah directed Civil Supplies, FCI and other departments to make all benefits available to farmers.
The Chief Minister K Rosaiah, on Saturday, directed the Department Of Civil Supplies, FCI , Marketing, and other departments concerned to see that Maximum Purchase Centres (MPC) are opened in all districts of the state as required for procurement of paddy in the present kharif season. He also directed the officials and FCI to ensure that the farmers get the Minimum Support Price under any circumstances.
Rosaiah said that there should be no complaints regarding procurement of paddy or Minimum Support Price from the farmers at any cost. He has also asked the Railways to make available the required rakes for movement of paddy from the godown for making available the required space. The Chief Minister also directed the Agriculture Marketing, Markfed and State Warehousing Corporation to see that new godowns are constructed and made available as required for the rabi season as well.He said that the required godown space should be available since a record food grain production is expected in the state due to very good monsoon.
The Chief Minister asked the Civil Supplies Department and FCI to see that Maximum Purchase Centres are opened in time through IKP Groups wherever needed. The Chief Minister was explained that during the current kharif marketing season of 2009-2010, 8.12 lakh tonnes of rice (44.25 lakh MTs of raw rice and 23.86 lakh tonnes of boiled rice) has been procured so far. As far as procurement arrangements are concerned, under Minimum Support Price (MSP) operations for paddy, kharif marketing season commences on 1st October. Paddy starts arriving in the market from 3rd week of October, 2010 and the production is estimated at 213.85 lakh tons.
In terms of rice, it is expected to be around 143.28 lakh tons. Officials informed that heavy arrivals of paddy are expected in this kharif season. FCI, A P State Civil Supplies Corporation and the IKP Groups are in readiness to commence the Minimum Support Price (MSP) operations from 1st October onwards and FCI and state agencies propose to open 168 and 374 centres respectively, totalling 542 procurement centres.
The Chief Minister reiterated that all the Government agencies should ensure that there should be no hardship to the farmers in disposal of the paddy. The MSP for FAQ Paddy is Rs. 1000 per quintal for common variety and Rs.1030 per quintal for Grade 'A' variety. All the purchase centres including AMCs require to be fully equipped with the gunnies, paddy cleaners, driers, winnowing machines, calipers etc.
Rosaiah directed that as has been the practice every year, wide publicity should be given for the purchase centre location, MSP, FAQ specifications and the schedule of dates for bringing paddy to the purchase centres from villages to avoid rush and excessive moisture content. Millers and traders should be directed not to purchase FAQ paddy at less than the MSP, for non-FAQ paddy also, they should purchase within the quality cuts prescribed by the Government for this purpose. As far as mill levy operations, levy may continue to be 75%, FCI would be the agent for collecting levy rice and proposed levy target for 2010-11 kharif season is 90 lakh tons – 60 lakh tons of raw and 30 lakh tons of boiled rice. This is over and above 10 lakh tons (approx.) expected to be delivered under the Custom Milled Rice.
The Chief Minister was informed that for effective procurement operations, the FCI has made an assessment of the arrivals and for godown space. FCI is reported to be having a clear vacant godown space of 2.7 lakh tons as of date, FCI is having at present 23 lakh tons of boiled rice and 14 lakh tons of raw rice in their godowns. Procurement will begin from the 3rd week of October and it will be heavy from November onwards. FCI has planned for movement of 5 lakh tons per month and 3 lakh tons to Kerala and Tamil Nadu respetively and 2 lakh tons to Bihar and West Bengal. Besides, there will be about 3 lakh tons of rice for PDS and other schemes. In addition, FCI has also got an export order to Bangladesh from Kakinada for 3 lakh tons of boiled rice. Hence, the FCI is in a comfortable position and there will not be any non-acceptance of levy rice by the FCI during the current kharif seasons and it will affect the purchase operations of paddy at MSP by the rice millers.
The AP State Warehousing Corporation has also assured the Chief Minister that within 6 months or at the most by May, 2011, it would create godown space for 5.56 lakh tons of food grains by taking up own construction and also through private entrepreneurs.
Rosaiah asked the APSWC to speed up the issue. Civil Supplies Minister Jupalli Krishna Rao, Agriculture Minister N Raghuveera Reddy, Marketing Minister Damodar Rajanarasima, Special Chief Secretary Agriculture, Rachel Chatterjee, Commissioner for Civil Supplies, Sanjay Jaju, Senior General Manager, FCI, Kalyan Chakravarthy, Commissioner, Agriculture, Sunil Sharma, Pincipal Secretary, Agriculture Marketing, Ratna Kishore, MD, APSWC, Balasubramaniam, MD, Markfed, Madhusudan Reddy, Secretary, Finance, T Satyanarayana, MD, AP Civil Supplies Corporation, Priyadarshini and other officials attended the meeting.
Courtesy: INN