Andhra Pradesh Government bought Rs 2,582 crore worth agriculture products during lockdown: Minister Kannababu

Vijayawada: Agriculture minister K Kannababu said the state government procured perishable and other agriculture products worth Rs 2,582 crore during the corona lock down period to help the farmers and had been implementing minimum support price (MSP) to the agriculture products.

He informed the state Legislative Council on Tuesday, the second day of the session that the state government had started new policy of giving MSP to the products like banana, sweet lime, onions, minor millets, etc., to help the farmers. He participated in the discussion on payment of insurance to the farmers for the crop loss caused by heavy rains.

He said the Union government was giving MSP to specific agriculture products and not to all products. He said the state government had purchased tobacco worth Rs120 crore from the farmers and was planning to sell the produce. He said flowers, banana, onions and other agriculture produce were also procured from farmers during the lockdown.

Kannababu said the state government had allocated funds for the market intervention and help the farmers, when prices drastically fall in the market. Milk collection centres would be opened in 9,000 villages in the state to help the farmers get better price and the state government was formulating Food Processing Policy-2020 to boost food processing units in the state.