The State government has devised at least eight strategies to double the income of farmers with the help of the Centre over a five-year time frame.
The Centre was requested to divide the entire country into crop colonies, a point frequently stressed by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, for specific crops based on agro-climatic regions so that minimum support price could be effectively ensured.
A continuous research and development should be promoted by Centre through its institutions in different States to increase productivity which did not take place for most of the crops.
Vulnerability of farm sector should be minimised by completion of irrigation projects, supply of power at affordable rate and reforming insurance schemes. A thorough review was needed on import of food grains, oil seeds, oil products and textiles. Agro-based industries should be encouraged to facilitate value addition and enhancement of farmers’ income.
An important suggestion was to exempt income-tax for allied activities of agriculture as they played a significant role in providing supplementary income of farmers.
The State government wanted framing of rules and accounting procedures for effective utilisation of Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act speeded up. The process took an unduly long time.
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee programme proved to be counterproductive to agricultural operations due to shortage of labour force in villages. Hence, there was urgent need to dovetail the programme to agricultural operations by including it in permitted activities under the programme. Fifty per cent of the wages should be paid under the programme and 50 per cent by farmers.
