The Andhra Pradesh government on Monday signed an MoU with the state Women Development Society and Lawrencedale Agro Processing Private Limited for integrated tomato value chain development. The integrated value chain will cover 20 farmer-producer organisations, benefiting 20,000 tomato farmers.
On this occasion, Minister of State for Agricultural Cooperative Marketing and Food Processing Kakani Govardhan Reddy said that Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy is implementing innovative schemes with the main objective of farmers' welfare and development. The minister said, "The integrated tomato value chain development programme was launched in a public-private partnership mode to ensure that there is no role for middlemen in tomato sales and the farmers stand to benefit at large."
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Govardhan Reddy said, the Andhra Pradesh Food Processing Society has established 20 primary processing plants in the state at a cost of Rs 110 crore, with four of them having finished construction. Food processing societies will be in charge of the operation and maintenance of food processing units.
The minister said tomato prices are usually increased or dropped due to fluctuations in demand and supply, resulting in losses for either consumers or farmers. "Whenever there is a high demand and a low supply, the government intervenes in the market and provides tomatoes at a reasonable price through rythu bazaars," stated the minister.
"With the creation of an integrated tomato value chain, farmers who have been suffering from irregular weather and overabundance will be able to stabilise their tomato crop profits," said Govardhan Reddy .
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(With inputs from ABP Desam — It is a Telugu platform of ABP News. For more news, commentary and latest happenings from two Telugu states, follow https://telugu.abplive.com//amp)