Hyderabad: Legislative Affairs Minister T Harish Rao has said the TRS government would send an official team to New Delhi to mount pressure on the Centre to increase minimum support price (MSP) to groundnut.
Responding to a question raised by the Congress member Challa Vamshichand Reddy during the question hour on Friday, Harish Rao said the total arrivals of groundnut to the market was 4,88,826.63 quintals so far during the year 2015-16. He said the farmers were getting the prices above the MSP for groundnut. While the MSP for ground nut is Rs 4030 per quintal, the farmers were getting about Rs 5,800 to Rs 6000 per quintal, he added.
Vamshichand Reddy said there was a need to increase the MSP of groundnut as the yield this year was as low as one-and-a-half quintal per acre as against 4 to 6 quitnal per acre. He said the farmers were selling their produce at Rs 4030 but the same farmers were purchasing the seed at Rs 9,300 per quintal from the middlemen. He demanded that the government increase the MSP from Rs 4030 to Rs 7500 per quintal.
Responding to it, Harish Rao said the government has decided to purchase ground nut from the farmers for seed sake. The government also decided to give good price to the farmers. He also said the government decided to mount pressure on the Centre to hike the MSP on ground nut. He said the Congress party was the reason for the low MSP for ground nut. But Vamshichand asked the minister not to politicize the issue as the Congress government had increased the MSP by Rs 1000 every year. But the present government was not keen on this issue. The Minister said the government would send a team to the Centre to mount pressure in this regard. (NSS)
Official team to be sent to Delhi for hike in groundnut MSP: Harish
