Hyderabad: Former finance minister and BRS MLA T Harish Rao on Sunday asked the Telangana govt to establish procurement centres for harvested crops — mainly sunflower — at the earliest.
In a letter to chief minister A Revanth Reddy, he highlighted that during the BRS rule, farmers were taught methods to increase oilseed production. He noted that while the sunflower crop is now ready for harvest, no purchase centres have been established in the state for selling the seeds.
He also claimed that farmers were being forced to sell their produce to middlemen for prices ranging from 5,500 to 6,000 per quintal. He emphasized that the BRS govt previously procured sunflower seeds through the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) at a reasonable price.
Rao mentioned that NAFED had announced a support price of 7,280. However, due to the absence of purchase centres, farmers are experiencing significant hardships. “Farmers are incurring losses of 1,000 to 2,000 per quintal,” he stated. On behalf of the farmers, he demanded the immediate establishment of sunflower purchase centres across Telangana.
