Atchannaidu vows efforts to protect interests of tenant farmers

Vijayawada: Minister for agriculture K. Atchannaidu has vowed efforts to protect the interests of the tenant farmers by providing them justice in terms of bank loans, relief for crop damage or loss and others.

Speaking at the state-level meeting of Andhra Pradesh State Cooperative Bank Limited here on Saturday, the minister said that any government has to give priority to agriculture and cooperative societies. He opined that it would be not possible to think of a society without them.

He assured that the Crop Cultivator Rights Act, 2019, would be abolished and the Act which was formulated in 2016 would be revived for implementation. He opined that the 2019 Act was not beneficial to the tenant farmers and assured efforts to help the tenant farmers get bank loans and compensation for damage or loss to the crops.

The minister laid stress on implementing e-KYC in cooperative sector to provide services to the beneficiaries in a transparent manner. He wanted the tenant farmers to become members of the coop societies so that they can avail farm loans.

He said the state government was committed to provide justice to all the tenant farmers and felt the need to develop coop societies similar on the lines of commercial banks.

Claiming that 90 per cent of farming was being taken up by the tenant farmers in the state, the minister expressed concern over the way the tenant farmers facing trouble in not getting the Crop Cultivator Rights Cards and also not getting any benefits from the government under the 2019 Act. He said this resulted in farmers falling in debt trap.

The minister underscored the importance of providing all benefits from the government to the genuine farmers affected by natural calamities. He felt the need to address irregularities by taking up digitalisation.