A maximum of ₹1,500 per quintal will be given to the growers: Somireddy
The State government will launch a customised price support scheme for chilli on April 20 to support the growers who are in distress due to fall in the price of the produce. The scheme will be implemented till the end of June.
The government has calculated that ₹8,000 per quintal is the average price in the last few years. Going by it, the price support scheme will cover the produce that has secured a price below ₹8,000 in the market yard in Guntur.
Addressing a press conference at the Secretariat on Tuesday, Agriculture Minister Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy said that a maximum of ₹1,500 per quintal would be provided to each farmer or tenant farmer who sells the produce at the market yard. A ceiling of 20 quintals per farmer was also fixed, he said.
Stating that the scheme was applicable only to the farmers from Andhra Pradesh, the Minister said that the farmers/tenant farmers would be identified based on the Aadhaar-based e-crop booking or Aadhaar-based certificate of cultivation.
‘Only for A.P. farmers’
The farmers would have to submit a photocopy of Aadhaar card, first page of the bank passbook in which the sale proceeds are credited, and a copy of the certificate of cultivation issued by the agriculture extension officer concerned for chilli, he said.
The Centre has agreed to assist the State in bailing out the farmers. About ₹300 crore would be released to purchase chilli from the farmers. The Centre has to amend the rules as chilli has no minimum support price (MSP).
“We hope the Centre will extend its help. The State government will go ahead and implement the scheme even if we don’t get any help from the Centre,” the Minister said.
There were allegations that the scheme would only help TDP leaders. There was no basis in such allegations as the support money would be credited into the farmers’ accounts directly, he said.
