Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has asked the Agriculture Department officials to accord priority to providing seeds and fertilizers to farmers through Rythu Bharosa Kendras (RBKs).
There should be no flaws in the supply of seeds and fertilizers even during the rabi season, he said during a review meeting on Agriculture Department on Wednesday.
Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said the equipment to test soil should be made available with the RBKs. “Complete mapping in every village to ensure that the use of fertilizers and pesticides is limited to the requirement,” he said.
“Also, prepare plans to implement the Plant Doctor programme and conduct soil testing programmes in April every year,” the Chief Minister said.
After completing the soil test, the farmers should be given the certificate, educated on the crops to be cultivated and the fertilizers to be used, he said.
Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy also directed the officials to be ready to distribute compensation to the farmers who suffered losses due to Cyclone Mandous.
The officials told him they had already distributed seeds to the farmers on subsidy. They also said that they were working on plans to distribute Kisan drones and agricultural inputs on 50% subsidy through the RBKs, besides imparting training to the farmers on the use of drones through Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University from December.
As 2023 was declared as the International Year of Millets, an action plan had been formulated for distribution of millets among people, the officials said.
They further said that distribution of drones and agricultural instruments would be taken up in March and during May and June. A total of 2,000 drones would be distributed, and in the first phase, 500 would be given to the farmers, they said.
The Chief Minister directed them to intensify training programmes and also establish a training centre in the North Andhra region.
He said procurement should be done based on e-cropping data without the involvement of millers and middlemen, while steps should be taken to strengthen the system to ensure that farmers were not put to financial losses.
Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said while the TDP government had spent ₹8,000 crore annually on procurement, the present government was spending ₹15,000 crore annually on procurement of food grains, including discoloured paddy. “We are also making payments to farmers immediately,” he said.
The officials informed the Chief Minister that so far ₹5,373-crore worth food grains had been procured and up to 89% of the payments were made. The procurement would go on till February second week, they said.
Ministers K. Govardhana Reddy and K. Venkata Nageswara Rao; A.P. Agri Mission Vice- Chairman M.V.S. Nagi Reddy; Adviser (Agriculture) I. Tirupal Reddy; Special CS (Agriculture-FAC) Y. Madhusudhan Reddy; Principal Secretary (Marketing and Cooperation) Chiranjeevi Choudary; Civil Supplies Commissioner H. Arunkumar; APSCSC V-C & MD G. Veerapandyan; Civil Supplies Director M. Vijaya Suneeta; Agriculture Commissioner Ch. Harikiran, APSSDC V-C & MD G. Sekhar Babu; A.P. MARKFED MD Rahul Pande; and Prof. NG Ranga Agricultural University V-C A. Vishnuvardhan Reddy were present.
