Focus on farmers needs

PNS | Vijayawada

Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has instructed the Agriculture Department officials to accord utmost priority to provide seeds and fertilisers to farmers through RBKs.

During the review meeting on Agriculture Department held here on Wednesday, the Chief Minister told them there should be no flaws in the supply of seeds and fertilisers to the farmers even in the Rabi season.

The officials told the CM that they had been working on plans to distribute Kisan drones and agricultural instruments on 50 per cent subsidy to farmers through RBKs, besides providing training to farmers on the use of drones through Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University since December.

They informed that the distribution of drones and agricultural instruments would be taken up in March and May-June. A total of 2,000 drones would be distributed and in the first phase, 500 drones would be given to farmers.

In response, he directed them to intensify training programmes and also establish a training centre in the North Andhra region.

He further directed them to formulate plans on implementing the Plant Doctor Concept and conduct soil testing programmes in April every year. After completing soil tests, farmers should be given the test certificates and educated on the crops to be cultivated and fertilisers to be used in their agricultural lands, he said.

He suggested that steps be taken to equip RBKs with soil testing instruments and complete the mapping in every village to ensure that use of fertilizers and pesticides would be limited to the requirement there by saving the farmers’ money and reducing pollution.
The Chief Minister also directed the officials to be ready to distribute compensation to the farmers who suffered losses due to Cyclone Mandous. Officials told him they had already distributed seeds to farmers on subsidy.

In view of 2023 being declared as the ‘International Year of Millets’, the officials explained that an action plan had been formulated on the distribution of millets to people.The officials disclosed that, on the instructions of the Chief Minister, so far Rs. 5,373 crore worth food grains had been procured from farmers and payments were completed up to 89 per cent in view of the Sankranti festival. The procurement will go on till February second week.

The Chief Minister said that procurement should be done based on e-cropping data without the involvement of millers and middlemen while steps should be taken to strengthen the present system to ensure that farmers are not put to financial losses. Once the procurement is done, the entire further responsibility lies with the government, he remarked, adding that a special phone number should be made available to address the grievances.  

He further added that while the TDP Government spent Rs. 8,000 crore annually on procurement, the present government had been spending Rs. 15,000 crore on procurement of food grains including discoloured paddy to keep the farmers happy. In an unprecedented manner, we are also making payments to farmers immediately, he said.

Minister for Agriculture and Cooperation Kakani Govardhana Reddy, Civil Supplies Minister Karumuri Venkata Nageswara Rao, AP Agri Mission Vice Chairman MVS Nagi Reddy, Advisor to Government (Agriculture) I. Tirupal Reddy ,Special CS (Agriculture-FAC) Y.

Madhusudhan Reddy,  Principal Secretary (Marketing and Cooperation) Chiranjeevi Choudary, Civil Supplies Commissioner H. Arunkumar,  APSCSC VC & MD G. Veerapandian, Civil Supplies Director M. Vijaya Suneeta, Agriculture Commissioner CH Harikiran, APSSDC VC & MD G. Sekhar Babu, AP MARKFED MD Rahul Pande, Prof NG Ranga Agricultural University VC Dr  A Vishnuvardhan Reddy and other officials were present.