VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday directed agriculture and civil supplies ministers, along with senior officials, to ensure that farmers do not sell their paddy for less than the minimum support price.
The Chief Minister, in a meeting at his camp office, directed agriculture minister Kakani Govardhan Reddy and civil supplies minister Karumuri Nageswara Rao to undertake the procurement systematically, by availing of the e-cropping data, to ensure that farmers benefit.
Officials present at the meeting apprised the Chief Minister that around 186 metric tonnes of foodgrains are expected from the kharif crop, as Andhra Pradesh registered a good rainfall of 781.7 mm from June to November.
They also discussed details of the e-cropping registrations for farmers to avail of benefits.
For the process, biometric authentication for village agriculture assistants and village revenue officers was completed, while the eKYC of farmers was 93 per cent complete, officials said.
Jagan directed officials to complete the eKYC process at the earliest, following which the officials briefed the CM about conducting social audits in public presence, as well as the action plan for procuring paddy.
He directed officials to prepare for the upcoming sowing season, and keep seeds, fertilisers and other farm inputs ready for the rabi crop that is expected to be cultivated on around 22.92 lakh hectares. The state government also decided to remit the input subsidy along with zero-interest crop loans to farmers’ accounts on November 29.
In a related development, the Jagan Mohan Reddy directed officials to rope in students from agriculture universities for apprenticeships in Polamabadi programmes so that services could be utilised to further awareness among farmers on good cultivation practices.
The Chief Minister sought a plan to ensure that each Rythu Bharosa Kendra has a drone available, within the next two years. Also, he sought that farm machinery be made available for farmers to avail of services through community hiring centres.
The Chief Minister also wanted to promote the ‘plant doctor’ concept and directed the officials to make arrangements to launch it in March 2023. He asked the officials to ensure the availability of soil testing tools at all RBKS so that it could help farmers determine the type of soil and the quantum of fertilisers to use.
Meanwhile, the AP State Seeds Development Corporation secured an award in the seeds category from the Indian Chamber of Food and Agriculture for 2022.
