Rahman lashes out at critics of AgTech

‘It will benefit small ryots in the long run’

Former VUDA chairman S.A. Rahman addressing the media in Visakhapatnam on Monday.

The Ag Tech Conference held in the city is sure to benefit small farmers in the long run. The use of scientific farming techniques will produce better yields and thereby give greater returns to the farmers, former MLA and senior TDP leader S.A. Rahman has said.

At a media conference here on Monday, Dr. Rahman condemned the statements of CPI(M) Polit Bureau member B.V. Raghavulu and YSR Congress leaders that the Ag Tech conference would not benefit small farmers in any way and it had resulted in wasteful expenditure to the tune of ₹ 40 crore.

While describing Mr. Raghavulu as his contemporary and a committed Communist leader, Dr. Rahman opined that the former should come out of his outdated views on agriculture. The objective of the government was to encourage small farmers to form into clusters and use drones to adopt for uniform spraying of pesticides to prevent residue in the crop.

Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu had already spoken to Microsoft Co-founder Bill Gates and the latter had promised to extend thousands of crores of rupees to Andhra Pradesh during the next 10 years though the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) for undertaking work in the areas of education, health, sanitation and ODF, he said.

“I was perturbed by the unwarranted criticism of the Ag Tech conference and spoke to Ramakrishna, an illiterate farmer from Guntur, who had attended the conference. Ramakrishna said he was getting returns to the extent of ₹4 lakh to ₹ 5 lakh on his acre by the adoption of innovative methods out of his own experience. The returns could be much higher if technological innovations are adopted,” Dr. Rehman said.

Polavaram

He refuted the criticism that there was no progress on Amaravati and on the Polavaram project. Such massive projects need time but their completion was imminent. The Polavaram project would benefit Visakhapatnam city as also the rest of the State. He appealed to the Opposition to indulge in constructive criticism, if they had differences with the policies of the government. Trying to stall development projects would only lower their (Opposition) image in the eyes of the public, he added.