Andhra Pradesh

BJP to call for paddy growers’ meet

HYDERABAD: The BJP will organise an all-India conference of paddy growers here on December 3 as part of its campaign demanding a hike in Minimum Support Price (MSP) for paddy.

It will be held under the aegis of Kisan Morcha of BJP, party’s national secretary N. Indrasena Reddy told a news conference here on Saturday.

He criticised Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar for throwing indications that there would be no hike in MSP for paddy, cotton and groundnut. It showed the Centre’s bias against paddy-growers.

The Centre was neglecting paddy-growers despite expectations of a huge shortage in the produce in coming years. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had himself acknowledged that the country would fall short of rice production by 1 crore tonnes in the coming

Five-Year Plan. The shortage could be filled only with contribution from Andhra Pradesh, Mr. Reddy said quoting Mr. Singh. He warned of a grave food scarcity if paddy farmers were to shift to alternate crops.

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