Farmers interested in going for drip irrigation will soon be assisted by the district administration to get borewells sunk free of cost, said district Collector S. Satyanarayana.
At a review meeting on drip irrigation and MGNREGS implementation at Borampalli in the district on Thursday, Mr. Satyanarayana said the number of persons getting jobs under the NREGS had to be increased.
Sale of groundnut seed
The Collector wanted District Water Management Agency (DWMA) Project Director (PD) Jyothi Basu to plan works accordingly, and interacted with labourers involved in digging of trenches.
Mr. Basu said all the farm ponds dug so far were getting filled as there was good rainfall. About 160 trenches were being dug in one acre.
The sale of groundnut seed will begin in all mandal headquarters from Saturday (June 15) with the State government fixing the subsidy at 40%. Initially, each farmer would be given a maximum of four bags of seed for two acres. The Collector inspected the groundnut seeds godown at Kalyandurg in the presence of Tahsildar K. Yugandhar and Revenue Divisional Officer Kishore.
The entire quantity of seed procured till date has been placed in mandals at distribution godowns, the Collector added. In all, 3 lakh quintals of processed seed will be procured in the district. Four different agencies were procuring the seed, including A.P. Seeds.
Backward Classes Minister M. Shankar Narayana willlaunch the distribution at Penukonda.
So far, 90,000 quintals of groundnut seed has been procured.
In the open market, seed is available at ₹61 to ₹ 67 per kg and with the government supply seed at subsidised rate, it would reach them at a little over ₹48 per kg.