Amaravati, Jun 27 (IANS): Despite the hurdles in transport due to COVID-19 lockdown and social distancing norms put in place, the Andhra Pradesh government managed to procure a record 7,83,246 metric tonnes (MT) of crops during the Rabi season. Managed by the state cooperative marketing federation (MARKFED), the procurement worth Rs 2,571 crore has benefitted more than 2.35 lakh farmers of AP.

To speed up the process, MARKFED set up around 1,000 procurement centres across the state. The approach also reduced the distance that farmers had to cover for disposing their produce. Special Commissioner of Agricultural Marketing P.S. Pradyumna said, "MARKFED has done the highest quantity of procurement in its history in Rabi season despite the lockdown conditions. At a time when the other states are facing various issues, we at MARKFED, however, have successfully supplied fertilizers to farmers for Kharif as well as Rabi seasons".

The crops that were procured include maize, Bengal gram, Jowar, red gram, turmeric, and onion. While maize crop to the tune of 3,97,123 MT was procured and topped the list, 1,78,013 MT of Bengal gram, 1,09,424 MT of Jowar, 60,020 MT of red gram, 24,842 MT of turmeric, and 957 MT of onion were also procured by MARKFED.

As part of the initiatives to support the procurement process, the Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy-led state government has launched CM App, a dedicated mobile app for undertaking all procurement operations by all the nodal agencies. An end-to-end solution for agricultural commodity price updates and for the necessary market intervention, the app provides comprehensive monitoring of agriculture commodity prices and procurement.