Our Bureau

Hyderabad , Aug. 3

THE State Government will soon set up a price-monitoring fund to offer minimum support price (MSP) for crops not covered by the Centre.

The MSP, however, is to meet the production cost of farmers. Crops such as chilli and tomato will be covered in the new scheme.

"The idea is to see to it that farmers will not end up in losses. This will instil confidence in farmers," Mr Botsa Satyanarayana, Minister for Marketing, said.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, he said modalities were being worked out to prepare a model.

A model being implemented in Kerala was under study.

The Minister said there would also be a mechanism to identify and market the produce collected from farmers in other States and abroad.

Fifty-three of the 301 market committees had been constituted so far. The remaining would be completed in due course. "This will depend on the time of notification to the municipal elections. If polls are notified, we will take it up later," he said.

Mr Satyanarayana, who was shifted to marketing from industry recently following the Volkswagen fiasco, criticised the Telugu Desam Party for making baseless allegations with regard to the deal with the German carmaker. "I am still confident that we can attract them," he said. "Their (TDP's) attitude on this issue is causing harm to the interests of the State."

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