Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has said the State government is standing by the farmers by paying them input subsidy for the losses incurred by them during the same season.
Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy was addressing a virtual meeting with the District Collectors on Tuesday after crediting an input subsidy of ₹542 crore into the accounts of the farmers who had suffered losses due to the natural calamities in November 2021.
Farm mechanisation
The Chief Minister also credited ₹29.51 crore into the accounts of 1,220 farmer groups under the YSR Farm Mechanisation scheme.
A total of ₹571.57 crore was deposited into the farmers’ bank accounts.
The Chief Minister said the government had paid ₹1,612 crore in the last more than two years towards compensation for the crop loss due to heavy rains and floods, which benefited 19.93 lakh farmers. Besides paying compensation, the farmers who had suffered losses during rabi were given 1.21 lakh quintals of seed at 80% subsidy.
‘TDP abandoned farmers’
“The TDP government had abandoned the farmers. It had not paid them the input subsidy of ₹1,832 crore and ₹356 crore for the 2018 kharif and rabi respectively. The tenant farmers were also left out from the government schemes,” the Chief Minister alleged.
“The YSRCP government is standing by the farmers, including tenant farmers, in all possible ways. The crop loss is being estimated in a scientific way through e-cropping at the Rythu Bharosa Kendra (RBK) level, leaving no one behind,” Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said.
“An amount of ₹123 crore input subsidy was paid in April 2020 for the crop loss incurred up to March 2020. Similarly, ₹278 crore was paid in October for the crop loss incurred between April and October 2020. A compensation of ₹646 crore was paid to 8.35 lakh farmers within one month of Nivar cyclone. Similarly, ₹22 crore was paid to the farmers affected by Gulab cyclone in less than two months of its occurrence,” the Chief Minister said.
He further alleged that the previous government had left a huge pile of debts that included subsidy for crops, seeds, insurance, electricity arrears, and zero-interest loans. He said that all the arrears left by the previous government were paid by the YSRCP government, which included pending bills of ₹960 crore for paddy procurement and ₹383 crore for seed subsidy.
Further, an amount of ₹19,126 crore was paid under YSR Rythu Bharosa and ₹1,218 crore under zero-interest loans for farmers. These apart, ₹23,000 crore was spent on free power supply and ₹1,700 crore for strengthening the electricity feeders across the State, he said.
Banking services
Also, the government had initiated banking services in the RBKs and appointed 9,160 ‘banking correspondents’ to offer services. In addition, agriculture advisory committees were set up at the village, mandal, district, and State levels to discuss the farmers’ issues. About 10,750 community hiring centers were set up at a cost of ₹2,134 crore to cater to the farmers’ needs, he said.
Ministers K. Kannababu, M. Srinivasa Rao, and M. Sankaranarayana, AP Agriculture Mission Vice-Chairman M.V.S. Nagireddy, Agriculture Adviser Ambati Krishnareddy, and Agriculture Special Chief Secretary Poonam Malakondaiah were present.
