Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar on Tuesday held a review meeting at Pragathi Bhavan to take stock of the availability of fertilisers, seeds for upcoming kharif season besides implementation of Dalit Bandhu, according to a media statement issued by the Chief Minister's Office.
During the meeting, the Chief Minister expressed anger over the regressive farm policies adopted by the Centre. He said the Central policies were dampening the agriculture growth of the country which relied on farming as the main occupation. The Chief Minister said it was unfortunate that the Centre's haphazard policies were discouraging farmers from continuing farming and also reducing farm output in the country.
He instructed the officials to expedite measures in the distribution of Dalit Bandhu amounts to identified beneficiaries. CMO secretary Rahul Bojja informed the Chief Minister that the scheme was already extended to 25,000 beneficiaries till date and on an average, 400
persons were availing this benefit every day for the past few days.
In view of the kharif season set to begin in June, the Chief Minister suggested going for cotton, chilli, red gram and watermelon crops and other alternative crops over paddy.
He also asserted to reduce indiscriminate use of fertilizers. The Chief Minister asked the officials to educate farmers about the scientific methods in the use of fertilizers. Soil health was deteriorating due to excess use of pesticides and fertilizers, he said and expressed concern on the repeated farming of single crops for years which was damaging soil health. The need of the hour was to adopt alternative cropping to protect soil quality, he said and asked the officials to prepare plans in this direction also.
The Chief Minister advised the farmers to use urea in three of four phases instead of one time to grow paddy.
In the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war, the Chief Minister said, the DAP availability would not be sufficient as the two countries which supplied raw material for DAP engaged in the war. He asked the officials to educate farmers on DAP use in a disciplined manner.
