Provide Quality Products To Farmers Through RBKs

Sep 02, 2021, 13:32 IST

AMARAVATI: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Wednesday held a review meeting on Agriculture, e-cropping, RBKs and on projects regarding the development and strengthening of infrastructure facilities in agriculture and allied sectors.

During the review meeting, the Chief Minister directed the officials to promote the cultivation of millets by creating awareness among the farmers that good returns can be expected. Appropriate steps should be taken to encourage farmers and ensure that they get better remunerative prices for their crops. In regard to Agricultural Advisory Boards Meetings, the Chief Minister instructed the officials to resolve the issues brought by these Boards and said that the authorities should definitely take the responsibility of addressing the issues raised by the farmers. The officials informed that over one lakh farmers are there in the Agriculture Advisory Boards.

Reviewing the Rythu Bharosa Kendras (RBKs), the Chief Minister said that the fertilisers, pesticides and seeds requested by the farmers should be made available at the RBKs within the stipulated time and stressed on providing quality products through RBKs. He said that a system should be set up to resolve the farmers' issues directly through the RBK centers by using Artificial Intelligence. The Chief Minister directed the authorities to focus on creating awareness among farmers on natural farming. He told the officials to hire buildings on a rental basis for setting up small godowns to store seeds, fertilisers, and pesticides. The Chief Minister said there should be continuous monitoring and review of the performance of RBKs and directed the authorities to take steps to get ISO certification. He stated that YSR Agri-Testing Labs must be launched in December this year.

In regard to the YSR Polambadi programme, the Chief Minister said that the government is conducting a Polambadi programme on 15 types of crops and asserted that the schedule of farming activities should be displayed in all RBKs. Besides these, he emphasised on getting certification for organic agricultural products and instructed the authorities to ensure that a better price is provided for such products.

Discussing with the officials, the Chief Minister emphasised e-cropping booking and said that farmers must be given a physical receipt along with digital acknowledgment listing out all e-crop details. He stated that the entire process must be done in a transparent way and must be cautious during the registration. In addition to making heavy machinery available at the Community Hiring Centers, the Chief Minister directed the officials to ensure all the necessary farming tools are available for the farmers at the RBKs by the next Rabi season. Further, he ordered to fill the 2038 vacant posts in village secretariats with Agriculture Assistants.

Besides these, the Chief Minister directed the authorities to replace a dysfunctional transformer with a new one immediately and told them to study the causes of transformer burning and load issues. He said that the farmers have no objection in fixing meters, as they would help in knowing the power usage and also increase the accountability of the officials concerned. He stated that the government is spending so much money for providing quality power to the farmers by strengthening feeders and also bringing in a 10,000 MW solar project for an uninterrupted free power supply and free electricity to farmers.

Meanwhile, the officials explained that the State received 421.7 mm of rainfall against the normal rainfall of 403.3mm and said normal or heavy rainfall was recorded in all districts except Nellore. So far, 67.41 lakh acres have been cultivated in Kharif against the set target of 76.65 lakh acres.
Agriculture Minister Kurasala Kannababu, Government Advisor (Agriculture) Ambati Krishna Reddy, Agriculture Special Chief Secretary Poonam Malakondaiah, AP State Agro Development Corporation Chairman Bukkapatnam Naveen Nischal, Agriculture Commissioner H Arun Kumar, and other officials were present.