Rs 10,000 Crore to Farmers by Sankranti New Speed-of-Delivery Benchmark: Manohar

Vijayawada: NDA coalition government will deposit over Rs 10,000 crore directly into farmers’ bank accounts by Sankranti, marking a historic first, food and civil supplies minister Nadendla Manohar underlined on Tuesday.

Addressing a media conference at his camp office here, the minister said Rs 9,789 crore have already been transferred following AP government’s procurement of paddy. The figure will cross the Rs 10,000-crore mark by the festival, setting a new benchmark in speed of delivery.

During the ongoing Kharif procurement so far, the state has procured 41.27 lakh metric tonnes of paddy from 6,76,848 farmers, against the centre’s target of 50 lakh MT. Manohar said the achievement reflected the coalition government’s commitment to farmers’ welfare under the leadership of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and Deputy Chief Minister K. Pawan Kalyan.

The minister charged that the previous Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy government made farmers wait for months before making payments, pushing many farmers towards middlemen. The YSRC government even left Rs 1,674 crore due to farmers.

Manohar underlined that the coalition government strengthened the procurement system immediately after assuming office. Key reforms include freedom for farmers to sell paddy at mills of their choice, direct payment to bank accounts within 24–48 hours, and installation of uniform moisture-measuring equipment at farmer facilitation centres and mills to resolve quality disputes. As a result, nearly 78 per cent of farmers received payments within four hours, he maintained.

District-wise performance shows sharp improvement. In Guntur district, procurement rose from 5,913 MT from 552 farmers in the previous government’s final year to 76,000 MT from over 11,700 farmers this season. Procurement has reached 98 per cent in the twin Godavari districts and 97 per cent in Kakinada.

Terming the progress of paddy procurement in Tenali constituency “historic,” the minister said while only 288 MT had been procured from 29 farmers at a cost of Rs 63 lakh in the last year of the previous government, the coalition government has so far procured 23,463 MT from 3,884 farmers this year, crediting Rs 51.76 crore into their accounts within 24 hours.

“Across the state, procurement is being managed through 3,572 centres deploying thousands of trucks, tractors and lakhs of hamalis and farm workers. Special rail facilities and inter-district movement, introduced for the first time, have boosted prices by Rs 300–Rs 400 per quintal within a week,” Manohar pointed out.

Extending Sankranti greetings, he said the NDA coalition government’s aim is to ensure remunerative prices for farmers and bring festive cheer within rural households.