Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has asked the officials of the Agriculture Department to make preparations to disburse the YSR Rythu Bharosa benefits to the eligible farmers in May, before the commencement of the kharif season. He wanted them to take steps to clear the dues of ₹33 crore to the farmers on kharif paddy procurement.
At a review meeting of the Agricultural, Marketing, Cooperation and Civil Supplies Departments at his camp office near here on April 24 (Monday), Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy asked the officials to prepare a list of eligible farmers for Rythu Bharosa at the earliest.
“Distribute fertilizers, seeds and pesticides to farmers through Rythu Bharosa Kendras. The quantity of supply has to be increased year after year, taking the growing requirements into consideration. Keeping a track of the functioning of ‘CM App’ for providing improvised services to farmers is necessary. The SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) of the CM App should be improved to ensure that Minimum Support Price (MSP) is paid to farmers,” he said.
Stressing the need to create awareness among farmers on different varieties of paddy which are in high demand, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy asked the officials to keep the seeds ready so that farmers would get them on time. This will help farmers opt for exports which can get the best prices for their produce, he said.
The officials informed the Chief Minister that the list of Rythu Bharosa beneficiaries would be made available at all village secretariats by May 10. Steps were taken to construct 1,005 godowns and 206 of them were ready for functioning, while the construction of 93 godowns was in the final stages. The work on the rest would be completed by July.
Around 7 lakh tonnes of fertilizers were distributed to farmers last year, while plans are afoot to distribute more this year. e-crop booking for 48.02 lakh acres has been completed so far and the data has been forwarded to the Civil Supplies Department, the officials said.
The officials said that the farmers would be trained on the use of drones by the Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University at Tirupati, Kadapa, Marteru and Vizianagaram, they said adding that the first such training centre is coming up at Vizianagaram.
Minister for Agriculture and Cooperation K. Govardhana Reddy, Civil Supplies Minister K.V. Nageswara Rao, A.P. Agri Mission Vice-Chairman M.V.S. Nagi Reddy, Advisor to Government (Agriculture) I. Tirupal Reddy, Chief Secretary K.S. Jawahar Reddy, Principal Secretaries Chiranjeevi Choudary (Marketing and Cooperation) and Gopalakrishna Dwivedi (Agriculture), Agriculture Special Commissioner Ch. Harikiran, Agriculture Commissioner Rahul Pande (Marketing), Horticultural Commissioner S.S. Sridhar, Civil Supplies Commissioner H. Arunkumar, APSSDC VC & MD G. Sekhar Babu, APSCSC VC & MD G. Veerapandyan and other officials were among those present.
