Mangaluru : The department of food and civil supplies directly will purchase ragi and tur dal from farmers from next week.

Minister for food, civil supplies and consumer affairs U T Khader said the department has plans to procure 2 lakh tons of ragi and 11 metric tons of tur dal this season.

“Chief minister Siddaramaiah has held a meeting involving agriculture minister Krishna Byre Gowda, law minister T B Jayachandra, officials and me to discuss offering better price for ragi and tur dal grown by farmers in the state. Currently, farmers in the state get a maximum of Rs 1,600 per quintal of ragi. Meanwhile, the market price for tur dal is approximately Rs 4,500 per quintal. However, middlemen make hay by selling it for higher prices in the market. Hence, we have decided to purchase ragi and tur dal directly from the farmers offering better prices. While ragi will be procured at Rs 2,300 per quintal, tur dal will be bought at Rs 6,000 per quintal,” the minister said, adding that ragi and tur dal will be distributed through public distribution system (PDS).

At present, there are nearly 1.10 crore families having ration cards. The government may have to purchase at least 2 lakh tons opf ragi and 11 metric tons of tur dal to meet the demand through PDS. Each family will be given 2 kg of ragi and 1 kg of tur dal based on demand, he said.

For this, he said, the state government will have to release additional funds. The sanction for the purchase of ragi from the Centre is Rs 1,900 per quintal and Rs 5,550 per quintal of tur dal. Hence, the state government will release supplementary funds of Rs 400 per quintal for ragi and Rs 450 per quintal of tur dal to offer better price for farmers. The department will take strict measures to prevent middlemen from exploiting farmers by purchasing and hoarding.

Government’s move will also prevent a possibility of sudden slash in prices of ragi during the peak harvesting season, he added.