Digital crop booking must, says Agriculture Commissioner

Farmers advised not to resort to distress sale

All cultivators at the grassroots level should compulsorily register their names online under the e-crop booking system to get all the benefits entitiled to them, according to State Agriculture Commissioner H. Arun Kumar

Visiting the rain-affected Basavanapalem village near Kodavalur along with Nellore Collector K.V.N. Chakradhar Babu, he said that only names of those tilling the land would be registered under the system. Without registering their names, the farmers would not be able to get minimum support price for their produce and other benefits including input subsidy for any crop loss, he said.

Millers from West Godavari district were being pressed into service for expeditious milling, he said.

The Collector assured the agitated growers that every grain produced by them would be procured at the farm level itself by offering minimum support price and asked them not to resort to distress sale. He wanted them to adopt better agronomic practices by taking suggestions from experts available at the Rythu Bharosa centres.

Worried over excess moisture, farmers urged the State Government to bail them out by arranging for more paddy dryers. Those who took up cultivation of NLR3354 variety had suffered losses due to adverse climatic conditions, they lamented.