With farmers still facing problems in the disposal (sale) of their produce, particularly soybean, maize and cotton, at minimum support price (MSP), Minister for Agriculture Tummala Nageswara Rao has written to the Centre again to relax norms to prevent exploitation by traders and ensure support price.
In separate letters addressed to Union Minister for Agriculture Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Minister for Textiles Giriraj Singh, Mr. Rao explained that farmers had suffered crop damage and loss due to untimely rains first and then due to Montha cyclone impact. He explained the necessity to relax the fair average quality norms in the wake of such adverse conditions and ensure farmers get support price to their produce.
Mr. Rao stated that soybean was cultivated in 3,66,697 acres during the Kharif season and the estimated yield was 7.62 quintals per acre. However, untimely rains during the harvesting period had damaged the crop badly, including discolouration and shrivelling of grain.
Accordingly, there was every necessity to relax the FAQs of soybean by the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED) and Federation National Cooperative Consumers Federation (NCCF), Mr. Nageswara Rao said and requested the Centre to direct NAFED to procure soybean with relaxed FAQ norms. The Centre had fixed MSP of ₹5,328 per quintal.
