The Union Government has said it would do all help to the States in implementing the decentralised paddy procurement policy from this year.
K V Thomas, Union Minister of State for Food and Civil Supplies, reviewed the plan to implement a pilot project to procure paddy under the new decentralised procurement policy in Andhra Pradesh. He asked the States to build annexe godowns to avoid direct shipment of foodgrains from Food Corporation of India godowns to public distribution system shops. “There are sufficient funds available from various Central schemes. You can even utilise funds from Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana scheme for this,” the Minister said.
The State will implement the policy in seven districts of Nalgonda, Karimnagar, Guntur, Prakasam, Warangal, Nellore and Chittoor. “We are planning to procure 11 lakh tonnes of paddy in these districts,” N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, Chief Minister, said after the meeting with the Union Minister.
The State would later expand the project to other districts as well. For this kharif, the State Government is planning to procure 13.71 lakh tonnes of paddy from 1,800 procurement centres. Earlier in the day, Thomas inaugurated the three-day National Sugar Technologists’ Association of India conference at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre here. He asked members to work to improve sugar cane yields in order to increase incomes to farmers.
kurmanath.kanchi@thehindu.co.in