The State Government is planning to introduce “agriculture card” with “dos and don’ts” for farmers from the next agricultural year.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has asked the officials of the Agriculture department to prepare the agriculture card with advisory to the farming community as to which crops they could cultivate keeping the market conditions in mind and which crops they could not raise from the next agricultural year.
At a review meeting held with senior officials of the department, including District Agriculture Officers (DAOs) here on Tuesday, he said the time had come wherein the employees of the Agriculture Department were expected to act as companions of farmers to make the livelihood-cum-economic activity profitable.
Minister for Agriculture Singireddy Niranjan Reddy, Rythu Bandhu Samithi (RBS) chairman Palla Rajeshwar Reddy, MPs G. Ranjith Reddy and B. Lingaiah Yadav, legislators Seri Subhash Reddy, A. Jeevan Reddy, Guvvala Balaraju, Balka Suman, K. Bhupal Reddy, B. Shankar Naik, Ch. Lingaiah, Chief Advisor Rajeev Sharma, Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, and Agriculture Secretary B. Janarthan Reddy attended the meeting.
The Chief Minister made it clear at the meeting that farmers could raise maize crop at their own risk and if they were ready to sell the product only up to ₹900 per quintal as the prevailing marketing conditions would leave no scope for the crop to get better price. Stating that the farmers were getting accustomed to regulated farming with the experience of just one season, he said it was the responsibility of the officials to guide them from time to time to get better yields and better marketing practices.
He asked the agricultural officials at field level to educate farmers about the facts surrounding maize cultivation so that they could voluntarily decide on not cultivating the crop in Yasangi season too. He asked the officials not to take their job as 10-am-to-5-pm work but a continuous process and instructed them to complete Rythu Vedikas by Dasara.
Further, the Chief Minister instructed the officials to fill the vacancies in the department, stating that it was the most dynamic and happening department in the State machinery now.
