AP CM YS Jagan for Effective Coordination Between Village Secretariats and RBKs

Amaravati: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy held a review meeting on the progress of Agri Infra Fund projects and directed the officials to complete them in the stipulated time.

During the review meeting held at the camp office here on Tuesday, the Chief Minister said the coordination between Village Secretariats and RBKs should be effective, and National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme works should be expedited. He directed the officials to monitor the progress of the projects regularly and conduct review meetings every 15 days and added that review meetings should be held at the officials- level every Sunday. The Chief Minister directed the officials to prepare an action plan for setting up a fish landing center at Kothapatnam in Prakasam district and the development of a fishing harbor in Kakinada. He instructed the officials to focus on developing a fishing harbor in Vishakapatnam.

The officials have informed the progress of projects to the Chief Minister, and the total estimated cost of the projects is Rs 15,743 crore.

Multipurpose facility centers

Multipurpose facility centers are being set up near RBKs to support farmers in all aspects. There are 16 types of projects including dry storage, drying platforms, PDS warehouses, essaying equipment, Janata Bazars, food processing infra, and animal husbandry infrastructure facilities. 4,277 dry storage and drying platforms, 60 warehouses for PDS, 1,483 procurement centers, cold rooms, turmeric boilers, turmeric polishers will be set up. Also, 7,950 primary processing equipment, 10,678 essaying equipment, as well as 10,678 collection center equipment will be arranged.

APDDCF

The State Government is constructing 9,899 bulk milk cooling units with an estimated cost of Rs 1,885.76 crore and 8,052 automatic milk collection units with an estimated cost of Rs 942.77 crore across the state. The land has been identified at 9,051 locations for BMCUs and construction works have already started for 6,252 units across the state. The target is to complete the construction of all BMCUs by September 30, 2021.

Amul milk collection

Amul has started milk collection in Prakasam, Kadapa, and Chittoor districts on November 20, 2020, then expanded to the Guntur district on March 29, 2021, and to some other villages in the Chittoor district on April 3, 2021. Amul will also start the collection of milk in the West Godavari district from June 4 (Friday).

Amul collected 50.01 lakh liters of milk from 12,342 women farmers in four districts and paid them bills over Rs 23.42 crore, and through this, women farmers earned an additional income of Rs.3.91 crore in the state.

Fisheries

The state government will set up 10 processing units, 23 pre-processing units, and 100 aqua hubs for the welfare and development of Aqua farmers and fishermen.  The State Government has already sanctioned 25 aqua hubs out of 100, and work will start this month. It is estimated that the cost of 133 processing, pre-processing units, and aqua hubs would be around Rs 646.90 crore.

Fishing Harbors

It is targeted to complete four fishing harbors Uppada (East Godavari), Nizampatnam (Guntur), Machilipatnam (Krishna), and Juvvala Dinne (Nellore) in the first phase by December 2022. In the second phase, fishing harbors are being constructed at Budagatlapalem in Srikakulam district, Pudimadaka in Visakhapatnam district, Biyyaputhippa in West Godavari district, and a fishing harbor in Prakasam district port, the officials said.

Food Processing

A total of 10,111 food processing units will be set up in the state, and seed and millets processing units will be constructed at the Village Panchayat level. Primary and Secondary food processing units will also be constructed. Crops, which have scope for food processing, were identified in 25 parliamentary constituencies, and lands are being identified accordingly for setting up units. The target is to complete the construction of food processing units by the end of June next year (2022).

Custom hiring centers

A total of 10,750 Custom hiring centers are being set up at RBKs level in the state, and each unit would cost Rs 15 lakhs. Hitech high-value farm mechanization hubs to come up in 175 locations at Assembly constituency level, and the cost of each hub would be around Rs 1.5 crore. Special clusters were identified in four districts where paddy production is high, and five Custom hiring centers will be set up at Cluster level for a Mandal in those districts. A total of 1,035 cluster level Custom hiring Centers with an estimated cost of Rs 25 lakh each will be set up.

Agriculture Minister Kurasala Kannababu, Agriculture Special Chief Secretary Poonam Malakondaiah, Industries Special Chief Secretary Karikal Valaven, Finance Principal Secretary S S Rawath, Marketing Principal Secretary Y Madhusudan Reddy, Marketing Commissioner Pradhyumna, APDDCF Director Ahmed Babu, Agriculture Commissioner H Arun Kumar, Fisheries Commissioner K Kannababu, Horticulture Commissioner S F Sridhar and other officials were present.