Agriculture Minister Tummala Nageswara Rao at a meeting with officials on procurement of maize in Hyderabad on Saturday. | Photo credit: By arrangement
HYDERABAD
Agriculture Minister Tummala Nageswara Rao has asked the Markfed authorities to expedite procurement of ₹4,000 crore of maize and said the government is also ready to procure ₹1,100 crore of jowar.
He criticized the Center for not coming to the aid of the farming community despite repeated pleas about their hardships and losses suffered due to unseasonal rains. He demanded that the Center include maize and jowar in the price support scheme and raise the ceiling of 25% of production on purchase of bengalgram and groundnut and raise it to at least 50%.
In a meeting with marketing department officials, he reviewed the ongoing procurement of maize, storage facilities, availability of gun bags, transport arrangements and central government policies. Officials informed the minister that 9.57 lakh tonnes of maize has so far been procured from farmers at the minimum support price of ₹2,400 per acre. The contract value so far is about ₹ 2,297 crore.
It said warehouses/storage facilities of 15.07 million tonnes would be required to store maize bought this season, but available space was only for 11.4 million tonnes. As storage space for an additional 3.29 million tonnes was required first, he asked the authorities to make necessary arrangements for storage.
Against the demand of 3 million gun-bags for the purchase of corn, 2 million bags have already been arranged. The minister said he would write to the Union agriculture minister and request him to increase the purchase of bengalgram and groundnut crops to at least 50% of the total production.
According to agriculture officials, maize was grown on 16,36,730 acres in Rabi and production was estimated at 43,48,791.6 tonnes at 26.57 quintals per acre. Similarly, jowar was grown on 4,03,400 acres and the estimated production was 4,03,400 tonnes at an average of 10 quintals per acre. The MSP set by the Center for jowar is ₹3,699 per quintal for hybrid varieties and ₹3,749 per quintal for the ‘maldandi’ variety.
Published – 16 May 2026 19:00 IST
