Andhra Pradesh went ahead with loan waiver without any help from either the Central government or the Reserve Bank of India and today it was doing very well in agriculture, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said. Intervening in a short discussion on “Agricultural support activities, growth, drought proofing and Rythu Bazars” in the Assembly on Wednesday, Mr. Naidu said despite severe deficit in rainfall, the State showed a tremendous increase in agricultural income. Agriculture showed a six-fold increase in contribution to the GSDP, Mr. Naidu said.
He said agriculture in the State was in a crisis when the TDP came to power. Farmers were committing suicide and even farmers from a fertile district like East Godavari had to announce crop holiday because they could not bear the continuous losses.
The TDP government made use of the latest in technology, best practices to make agriculture profitable.
Andhra Pradesh was ahead of all its neighbouring States in agricultural production. Farmers would soon be told ‘how much of what crop to grow a what time’ to ensure they get the maximum returns for their investment and effort. The latest in technology including predictive analytics would be used for this, the Chief Minister said.
Market intervention
Agriculture Minister Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy said how Vietnam which had quite adverse climatic conditions was able to cultivate three paddy crops using the best practices.
The Minister said the Government was planning not only for getting better yields, but also better prices. It was going to earmark ₹500 crore for market intervention, the Minister said.
Marketing Minister Adinarayana Reddy and several MLAs participated in the discussion. Several of them said that the changes that have been brought about in the agriculture sector by the Chief Minister were a matter of pride to them.
