A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION: Farmers getting their maize produce weighed at a procurement centre.

HYDERABAD: Days of futile wait for disposing of maize at rates fixed by middlemen and traders is a thing of past in seven Telangana districts. Farmers are lining up at procurement centres opened by village organisations (VOs), umbrella outfits of self-help groups (SHGs), to sell the produce at the minimum support price of Rs. 540 a quintal.

In less than a month, these organisations have procured 12 lakh quintals of maize costing Rs. 65.86 crores. Soon, 2,649 villages will be covered by 422 VOs, which plan to procure four lakh tonnes costing Rs. 216 crores.

Thanks to the initiative taken by Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP), which implements the Indira Kranti Patham (IKP) and AP MARKFED, enterprising self-help group members are giving sleepless nights to middlemen and traders by procuring maize in record numbers.

It all started with the SERP and MARKFED officials planning to decentralise maize procurement in Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Warangal, Medak, Ranga Reddy, Mahabubnagar and Adilabad districts by opening two-three centres in each mandal, to facilitate farmers to directly bring their produce.

Having identified the areas, a five-member purchase committee for each centre and village advisory committees headed by the local sarpanch was constituted. Necessary infrastructure, like weights and measures, moisture meters, tarpaulins, stitching machines and packing materials were provided.

State Project Advisor (marketing), SERP, K. P. Rao, told The Hindu on Wednesday that ryots were saving Rs. 70 on each bag of maize by disposing them off at the centres, instead of going to the nearest market. Each VO would make a neat profit of Rs. 50,000 in two months while a group of 15 labourers engaged to load the produce would get up to Rs. 90,000 during the same period.

Transportation problem

The ryots now want other produce to be procured at such centres in the hope of getting remunerative prices. The only problem facing the VOs is engaging trucks to transport the produce. "We have urged the Collectors to hold talks with transporters to transport the stocks to the nearest Government godowns," Mr. Rao said.

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