Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has called for an effective mechanism on market intelligence for agriculture products, and instructed the officials to take steps for keeping the prices of vegetables under check.
Addressing a review meeting on the State Agriculture Mission (SAM), along with its vice-chairman M.V.S. Nagi Reddy, on Saturday, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said a long-term plan should be drafted for stabilising the prices. The Agriculture Market Committees (AMC) should be involved in the process, he said. He said a cell should be formed with experts for supervising the procurement of agriculture produce and marketing.
The officials told the Chief Minister that pulses and tomatoes were not fetching minimum returns due to piling up of stocks with the farmers, and stressed the need for necessary intervention.
The Chief Minister enquired about the rising prices of onion, and asked the officials to rein them in.
During the TDP regime, businessmen and politicians had duped the farmers to a great extent, he alleged.
Purchase centres
Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said the farmers should make the best use of the Market Stabilisation Fund, and insisted that purchasing centres be opened wherever required to ensure that the farmers got remunerative price.
He said the ₹1,830 crore, which the TDP government owed to the farmers, would be cleared by the end of this month. Rythu Bharosa and input subsidies would go a long way in helping the farmers in the days to come, the Chief Minister added.
