The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) will take a series of initiatives, including dovetailing of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Act (MGNREGA) with the farmers, to make farming profitable if the party is voted to power in 2024, according to party national president and former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.
Interacting with a large number of farmers at Markapur on Friday, Mr. Naidu said, “I will ensure that the wage employment scheme is linked to farming to address the serious problem of labour shortage faced by the farmers.”
“As son of a sugarcane grower, I know the hardships of fellow farmers. I will come out with several policy initiatives for the farmers to grow the right crop on the right land, bring appropriate technological interventions to cut costs and facilitate online marketing of farm produce to get the best price for the produce,” Mr. Naidu said amid loud cheers from the farmers of the drought-prone Prakasam district.
Natural farming
Noting that the farmers in the State were resorting to indiscriminate use of pesticides now, he said drones would be pressed into service to overcome the pest menace. Advocating organic farming, Mr. Naidu recalled that it was he who had brought Zero Based Natural Farming (ZBNF) of Subash Palekhar to Andhra Pradesh.
‘’A special mobile app will be launched to connect the growers, who are struggling to get even the minimum support price now for farm produce, with the buyers world-wide after doing away with middlemen so that they get a remunerative price,” he assured the agriculturists.
“The one chance given to the YSRCP has proved to be costly, as each farmer in the State is now saddled with an average debt of ₹2.50 lakh each with Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy neglecting agriculture.”N. Chandrababu Naidu TDP national president
‘’The ‘one chance’ given to the YSRCP has proved to be costly as each farmer in the State is now saddled with an average debt of ₹2.50 lakh each with Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy neglecting agriculture,” Mr. Naidu opined.
Veligonda project
He promised to complete the multi-crore Veligonda project on a war-footing. He recalled that 95% of the project work had been completed when the TDP demitted office in 2019. “Does the present Chief Minister need five years to complete the balance 5% of works?” he asked.
Farmers should gear up for massive agitations as the YSRCP government was bent upon metering of farm pump-sets in an alleged bid to dilute the free power scheme, Mr. Naidu said, recalling that he had implemented loan waiver for farmers overcoming bifurcation blues.
Recalling that farm implements, including tractors, as also micro-nutrients were provided at subsidised rates after soil testing during the erstwhile TDP regime, he said it was unfortunate that the YSRCP government had discontinued the initiatives as also the Israeli technology to grow crops with each drop of water through sprinklers and drips.
Tractors, harvesters and other farm implements would be made available to small and marginal farmers for rent as and when the TDP came to power, he promised.
Mr. Naidu also assured justice to beleaguered farmers from Amaravati who had parted with their precious land for the construction of a world-class capital during the erstwhile TDP regime and now allegedly harassed by the YSRCP government.
Abolish VRO system: farmers
He promised to take suggestions extensively from the farmers before finalising the election manifesto when a group of farmers pressed for pension to all growers on attaining 50 years of age, hiking the investment subsidy to each farmer to ₹25,000 and abolition of the Village Revenue Officer system.
