Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has urged agricultural scientists to innovate new farm techniques that would benefit farmers of Andhra Pradesh.
Addressing the inaugural session of the two-day India Rice Conclave 2017 here on Wednesday, Mr. Naidu said: “Give me workable low-cost high-yield farming ideas for implementation so that farmers can reap the benefits.” Stating that agriculture was close to his heart, he said: “Even I was a farmer. I know their pain and suffering. That’s why my focus is on leveraging technology to benefit the community.”
Constraints
He said rice production in the country was passing through serious constraints such as yield, water scarcity, drought, irregular monsoon, increasing soil mineral stress, flash floods, water logging, high cost of cultivation, labour shortage, inadequate storage facilities, invasive pests and diseases, lack of policy innovations and inadequate institutional dynamics. “We need to focus on proper utilisation of resources by providing quality seed, developing high yield varieties/ hybrid rice, cost-effective mechanisation and by promoting agricultural stewardship.”
Reminding that Andhra Pradesh was one of the leading producers of paddy in the country, he said nearly one-third of the total area (23 lakh hectares) was under paddy cultivation, which contributed to 66% of the total food grain production in the State.
“A.P. is second only to Punjab in terms of productivity in the country,” he pointed out.
Agri zones
The Chief Minister said the State was developing five crop agri zones and paddy was one of them.
“The paddy crop zone is sub-divided into four zones and the aim is increase the farm income by adopting appropriate cropping sequence, suitable varieties, high production, and low-cost techniques,” he said.
Mr. Naidu said the focus of the conclave should be on regulating the paddy market, modernising and upgrading rice mills, facilitating appropriate internal and external market linkage for farm produce, starting up new enterprise focussed on various rice products and by-products and exploring opportunities of value addition from other by-products like rice husk, rice bran, brewed rice, puffed rice, rice flakes etc.
He said new strategies should be developed to keep pace with the changing food habits.
Speaking about the vast range of new technology tools available, he said their effective use could bring the desired change.
“If we can stabilise the agriculture sector, we can achieve a stable economy, where the farmer will feel empowered,” he said.
Agriculture Minister Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy, Vijayawada MP Kesineni Nani, Vice-Chancellors of Viswa-Bharati University and Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University Swapan Kumar Dutta and V. Damodara Naidu respectively, and Rajeev Singh, Director-General, Indian Chamber of Commerce, were present.