TS plans to amend markets Act to benefit farmers further

The Telangana government would bring in amendments to the Agricultural Produce and Livestock Markets soon to strengthen it further for benefiting the farming community.

This was stated by Minister for Irrigation and Marketing T. Harish Rao at an awareness meeting for Agricultural Market Committee (AMC) presidents, secretaries and officials here on Sunday on their preparedness for the ensuring marketing season and implementation of the National Agriculture Market (NAM) programme.

Stating that the credit of implementing reservation in the AMCs for the first time in the country would go to the Telangana government, the Minister said the aim of the government was to take the markets as closer as possible to the farming community. He said the the government was planning large-scale reforms in the marketing department and amending the existing act to benefit the farmers further was part of it.

He asked the farming community to store their produce in the increased godown space made available to them. A total of 30 market yards were set up in the State recently and 10 more would be established soon. The government had also decided to provide dryers at Jangaon market yard to enable farmers dry their produce, particularly paddy, for the first time in the State.

On the implementation of NAM programme, the Minister said 44 AMCs were linked to the programme nationally out of 214 markets covered under it across the country. He also announced that the government was examining the possibility of shifting the Khammam market yard due to congestion at the present location.

Further, Mr. Harish Rao said that Rythu Bazaars set up to provide direct marketing facility to farmers were functioning successfully at 36 out of 53 places where they were set up. He noted that 17.07 lakh tonne storage space would become available as part of construction of 330 godowns taken up with a cost of Rs.1,024 crore. The total storage space in Telangana till bifurcation was only 6 lakh tonnes.

Government considering shifting Khammam market yard owing to congestion