Vijayawada: In a relief to the chilli farmers in Andhra Pradesh, the Centre has agreed to procure chilli from them through market intervention scheme (MIS). The Centre has fixed 1,1781 per quintal as procurement price.
The decision came after chief minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu‘s SOS to the Centre. CM Naidu explained the precarious conditions of chilli farmers in the state to Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan during his recent visit to New Delhi. A day after the CM’s briefing, Chouhan held a high-level review meeting with the senior officials of his ministry and delegation from AP. Chouhan asked the officials to take the issue with a serious note and prepare the roadmap for procurement of chillies from AP farmers.
Sources said that the Centre has decided to extend the support price to pick up around 25 percent of the total production during the current season. It is likely to release detailed guidelines for procurement in a day or two. AP’s marketing agency-Markfed and Nafed are likely to collaborate in taking up the procurement. The Centre is expected to pick up about 2.5 lakh metric tonnes of stock from the farmers. The move is likely to stabilize the prices in the market as it would prompt the traders to rush for the stocks.
Initially, the Indian Council for Agriculture Research (ICAR) put the cost of chilli cultivation at 10,000 per quintal. This was disputed by the AP delegation led by Union civil aviation minister K Rammohan Naidu. They explained that the cost of cultivation is around 11,500 and they wanted the price to be fixed little higher than the cost of production.
State govt exerted pressure on the Centre as the prices in Guntur, the biggest chilli marketplace for it, dipped to below 10,000 per quintal. This is almost 40 percent of the last year’s price of 25,000 per quintal. With yields also going down due to the black thrips virus, farmers raised alarm demanding state govt’s intervention.
After taking the issue to the notice of Centre, CM Naidu had also held a detailed review meeting with exporters, local traders, farmers representatives. He asked the officials to ready the guidelines for procurement in such a manner that the stocks from other states should not be brought for sale. He said that any benefit to be extended by the state and Centre should be exclusively provided to the farmers of the state.
