Telangana AEOs Struggle with Staff Shortage Amid Digital Crop Survey Rollout
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2024-09-30 06:45 GMT
Hyderabad: Agriculture extension officers (AEOs) tasked with holding the centrally-sponsored digital crop survey are flagging the shortage of staff at the village level and seeking appointment of temporary staff to complete the task, as is being done in other states.
They said the 2,600 AEOs in the state, who perform 49 regular tasks, would be hard-pressed to take on the additional work, as part of which they have to take photographs of the crop in every acre of land in their jurisdiction.
Each AEO on average covers six to seven villages. They say that the lack of staff at the village level was a shortcoming. They pointed out that the 2,600 personnel were expected to survey around 1.5 crore acres of agricultural land in the state.
“When the work was taken up on a pilot basis in one mandal we needed 15 to 20 AEOs to complete it. The staff were trained on September 19 and asked to become part of it from September 24. Those who do not download the app for undertaking the survey are being browbeaten with the issuing of showcause notices and other measures," said Bandela Suman, treasurer of AEOs union.
“The AEOs have been expressing their displeasure with these measures to the district collectors, ministers and MLAs. We met the agriculture director and explained our problems to him,” Suman said.
The government should either hire people on a temporary basis or outsource the work to private agencies and entrust the AEOs with the task of overseeing the work, Suman said.
They said the 2,600 AEOs in the state, who perform 49 regular tasks, would be hard-pressed to take on the additional work, as part of which they have to take photographs of the crop in every acre of land in their jurisdiction.
Each AEO on average covers six to seven villages. They say that the lack of staff at the village level was a shortcoming. They pointed out that the 2,600 personnel were expected to survey around 1.5 crore acres of agricultural land in the state.
“When the work was taken up on a pilot basis in one mandal we needed 15 to 20 AEOs to complete it. The staff were trained on September 19 and asked to become part of it from September 24. Those who do not download the app for undertaking the survey are being browbeaten with the issuing of showcause notices and other measures," said Bandela Suman, treasurer of AEOs union.
“The AEOs have been expressing their displeasure with these measures to the district collectors, ministers and MLAs. We met the agriculture director and explained our problems to him,” Suman said.
The government should either hire people on a temporary basis or outsource the work to private agencies and entrust the AEOs with the task of overseeing the work, Suman said.