Minister for Agriculture S. Niranjan Reddy has asked those manning the paddy procurement centres to weigh only 40.7 kg of paddy per sack (gunny bag) so that there is no spillage while sewing it before transporting to the mills.
In a teleconference held with officials from his residential quarters here on Friday he said it was the responsibility of procurement centres staff to ensure that no loss occurred to farmers in weighing of their produce. Stating that procurement centres would be opened based on harvesting of the paddy in different areas, he noted that 3,028 centres had been opened to date.
Plea to leaders
He suggested that sarpanches, MPTC and ZPTC members, mandal parishad presidents, and Rythu Bandhu Samithi presidents visit the purchase centres every day and enquire about the problems, if any, being faced by farmers.
He asked those managing the procurement centres to shift the purchased paddy regularly to the mills so that there was enough space for arrivals and to reduce the risk of damage to the purchased paddy.
The Minister also urged the farmers to get the tarpaulin sheets available with them to protect their produce at the procurement centres, in case there was rain before their produce was weighed and billed.
He told the officials to educate farmers to increase cultivation of cotton, red gram and superfine paddy from now itself. Meanwhile, chairman of the Telangana Rythu Bandhu Samithi Palla Rajeshwar Reddy held a virtual meeting of the farmers’ body on Friday and asked the RBS coordinators at district, mandal and village levels to educate and encourage farmers to raise green manure crops before taking up kharif crops.
They could give timely advice on the farming activities every month, Mr. Reddy suggested.
