Government To Purchase Corn For Minimum Support Price

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao today announced that corn would be purchased at a Minimum Support Price through the purchasing centres created for paddy in the villages.

The CM said that corn would be purchased at Rs 1,850 per quintal through Markfed, and urged the farmers to utilise the opportunity.

The CM was however upset that though the government had asked the farmers not to cultivate maize in the rainy season as the crop would not be able to get an MSP, some farmers had still cultivated it.

He said that since the farmers had cultivated the crop against the government's advice, as such the government had no responsibility to buy it. However, with the sole intention that the farmers should not be put to any loss, the government had decided to bear the loss and purchase the corn from farmers at an MSP, he said.

"During the last summer, the government had through Markfed purchased 9 lakh tonnes of corn and spent Rs 1,668 crore. Since the corn purchased did not get any price in the open market, it was auctioned. The open auction of corn got only Rs 823 crore. As a result Markfed incurred a loss of Rs 845 crore," the CM explained.

"Keeping that in mind, the state government had urged farmers not to go in for maize cultivation this rainy season. Some farmers however did not pay heed to the advice, and cultivated maize anyway. Since there is no good price for corn, they are on the brink of incurring losses now. But Telangana is a pro-farmer state where the welfare of the farmers is paramount, and cannot keep quiet when maize farmers are about to suffer. Hence we have decided to buy the corn," the CM added.

"We are however once again requesting farmers not to cultivate maize in the upcoming summer season under any circumstances. Despite repeated appeals, if any farmers go in for maize cultivation, the government will not take any responsibility. The government will not purchase any corn cultivated in the summer," KCR cautioned.

"It was due to the wrong policy of the BJP government at the Centre that corn prices dropped in the market. The Centre reduced the import duty on corn from 50% to 15%. This has directly led to a steep fall in the price of corn. And leaders of the same party which was responsible for the fall are now playing cheap politics here. Farmers should be aware of this. They should not listen to those creating problems for political gains," KCR said.