Srikakulam : Painting a rosy picture of the kharif crop, Joint Collector M.Veerabrahmaiah assured farmers that they would get remunerative price for their produce this season. Addressing a meeting of Mandal Revenue Officerss, Mandal Development Officers and Agricultural Officers on the proposed Rythu Chaitanya Yatras (RCY), beginning from November 2, at the Collectorate here on Tuesday, Mr.Veerabrahmaiah observed that the "expected paddy yield this season is about 5.33 lakh tonnes. The procurement target of rice this year is 2.50 tonnes. This requires roughly 5 lakh tonnes of paddy. So there is no dearth of demand."

Purchase centres

The millers had agreed to purchase paddy for delivering procurement rice. Besides this, the administration will open some 72 paddy purchase centres for the kharif season, so there should be no difficulty in getting the MSP (minimum support price) of Rs.570 a bag (100 kg) for the common variety and Rs.600 for `A' grade, Mr Veerabrahmaiah said.

Mr.Veerabrahmaiah also pointed out that of the 2.5 lakh tonnes of rice procured, the administration would itself use as much as 2 lakh tonnes for various Government schemes. The only thing that should be done is to educate farmers. According to his information, only 20 per cent of farmers in the State knew about the MSP as against 50 per cent farmers in States like Punjab where farmers were considered to be progressive.

Training of ryots

He said that the RCYs would continue till November 11. It was basically a capacity enhancement and technology transfer programme and the stress was on training and educating farmers. RCY teams comprising officers from revenue, agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, sericulture, Transco and credit should visit at least three to four panchayats every day and report to the Joint Director (Agriculture) and the Commissioner daily.

At least four progressive farmers, of which one should be a woman, should be identified at the village level farmers training programme and invited to participate for one day RCY at the Assembly constituency level meeting starting from November 15, the Joint Collector said.

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