VIJAYAWADA: Agriculture minister K. Kanna Babu on Sunday asserted that despite Covid-19 crisis faced by Andhra Pradesh, state government has procured from within the state 19 lakh tonnes of food grains paying Rs 6,400 crore to farmers.
Refuting allegations by opposition parties, he maintained that the state government, under leadership of Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, has been fully supporting farmers in all aspects like cooperatives, agricultural production, food processing and marketing.
Kanna Babu was addressing AP Marketing Federation’s 65th Foundation Day celebrations here on Sunday. On the occasion, he also unveiled Markfed’s new logo "Raithay Raju".
The minister pointed out that the state government has during 2020–21 supplied 1,21,718 tonnes of fertilisers through Rythu Bharosa Kendras and 4,30,995 tonnes through cooperative societies.
To support farmers, the CM had also announced support prices for six crops – chilli, turmeric, onion, millets, banana and sweet lime, which even the central government has not done. For the first time, Jagan government intervened through Markfed and procured 12.93 million kg of FCV tobacco from farmers worth Rs 119 crore. He announced that through Markfed, many more services will be provided to farmers very soon.
Markfed chairman P. Nagi Reddy, principal secretary Madhusudan Reddy, marketing commissioner Pradyumna, agriculture department commissioner Arun Kumar were among those present on the occasion.
