HYDERABAD
Minister for Agriculture and Marketing Tummala Nageswara Rao has asked the authorities to complete the installation of solar power systems in all market yards and godowns in three months and also complete automation, including digitalisation, ahead of the Kharif marketing season commencing in October-November.
In a meeting with the officials concerned here on Saturday, he said there was a need to transform the agricultural marketing department with the help of technology and make all the transactions transparent. He reviewed the preparedness for cotton procurement, status of solar power systems’ installation and others.
Asking the authorities to complete automation in all the 206 market committees, the Minister told them to complete the tenders process by the month (August) end and take up work in September. He suggested the officials link closed circuit camera systems, electronic weighing scales, gate entry and exit systems to one digital platform.
He wanted them to implement the number plate scanning system followed by the Transport department so that entry and exit of vehicles and details of the farm produce were recorded digitally as the government was moving ahead with the plan to make all transactions digitally.
Regarding the purchase of new paddy cleaners, dryers and lifters, the Minister asked the authorities to test them technically before taking a decision on their purchase. On solar power systems, he told the officials to get the feasibility reports from all godowns and market yards by September, take up works and complete them by November.
On the Koheda integrated market construction, he instructed the officials to finalise the designs submitted by the agency within a week so that works could be taken up in September.
Later, oilpalm farmers’ associations leaders from Warangal, Bhupalapally, Mulugu, Mahabubabad, Suryapet, Nalgonda, Nirmal and Khammam districts met the Minister and requested him to set up oilpalm procurement centres in every mandal.
For DAP supply
On Friday, the Minister addressed a letter to Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers J.P. Nadda with a request to allocate and supply 50,000 tonnes each of DAP for August and September months. From April to July, the State was supplied only 1.55 lakh tonnes against the allocation of 2.2 lakh tonnes, Mr. Rao pointed out.
Published - August 01, 2026 08:20 pm IST