The Rythu Bharosa Kendras (RBK) have been nominated for the United Nations Award by the Centre for Champion Awards (CCA) of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
These awards are given for outstanding contributions by the governments to increasing food security, Agriculture Minister Kakani Govardhan Reddy has said.
Announcing this at a press conference on Wednesday, Mr. Govardhan Reddy said the RBKs, which became a game-changer for the farmers, were one of the six initiatives nominated by the CCA for the coveted UN award.
He asserted that the RBKs had revolutionised the agriculture sector by catering to the farmers’ needs, from supplying seeds to selling their produce.
The Minister said that a total of 10,778 RBKs, which were Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s brainchild, had been supplying quality seed, fertilizers and pesticides, besides farm machinery, and they had even become hubs of knowledge.
He said the TDP leaders had no moral right to speak on farmers’ issues as the agriculture sector was completely neglected during their term.
The YSRCP government, on the contrary, paid ₹23.40 crore towards ex gratia to the families of farmers who had committed suicide, cleared rabi crop insurance dues amounting to ₹119.44 crore, and disbursed ₹784 crore towards interest-free loans, the Minister added.
