GULBARGA: Minister for Agriculture Marketing Sharanabasappa Darshanapur on Tuesday said he has requested Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, who holds the Finance portfolio, to do away with the 0.5 per cent market cess collected towards the revolving fund for market intervention.

Mr. Darshanapur told presspersons here that he has suggested a budgetary allocation of Rs. 250 crores to the revolving fund to make up for the loss of around Rs. 70 crores collected each year as market cess from farmers.

At present the revolving fund has a reserve of Rs. 208 crores. With the allocation of Rs. 250 crores more, the department will be able to immediately intervene and procure commodities as soon as prices fall, he said.

The demand from farmers for market intervention was increasing because of price fluctuation. There is also a growing demand to include more commodities under the market intervention scheme. The Government has decided to procure tomato at a minimum support price of Rs. 2 a kg, the Minister said.

The Government does not plan to abolish district-level offices of the Department of Agriculture Marketing although such a proposal has been made, he said.

Mr. Yediyurappa has been asked to relax the norms for recruitment to 900 vacant posts in the department.

The department has decided to provide additional facilities in the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee yards for the marketing of mangoes. To improve mango production, the Government will help farmers replace long-duration mango trees with short-duration varieties in a phased manner, he said.

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