Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has asked officials to provide drip and sprinkler facilities to all the small and marginal farmers within the stipulated time.
Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy, during a review meeting on horticulture, micro irrigation and agriculture infrastructure on Tuesday, said the government was taking steps to dig borewells for the small and marginal farmers. Providing drip and micro irrigation facilities to them would help them in getting better yield, he said.
The works should be done on saturation basis and every eligible person should be benefited from the schemes being implemented, and there should be no scope for corruption, he said.
The Chief Minister also suggested the officials to give priority to the farmers with less than 10 acres of land in Rayalaseema and Prakasam, and less than five acres in other places in providing drip and sprinkler facilities.
Procurement of micro irrigation facilities through reverse tendering would help reduce the cost and benefit more farmers. He said the cost of drip and sprinkler systems would be concluded after taking the subsidies of the Central government and the State government into consideration, he said.
The Chief Minister directed the officials to focus on solving the problems of farmers cultivating mulberry and improving their situation.
He also reviewed the setting up of multi-purpose facility centres as part of Agri Infra such as dry storage, drying platform, godowns, horticulture infrastructure, primary processing centres, collection centres, cold rooms for storage, custom hiring centres, assaying equipment, Janata Bazaars, procurement centres, and e-marketing.
The Chief Minister directed the officials to promote organic and natural farming in the limits of every Rythu Bharosa Kendra.
A.P. Agriculture Mission vice-chairman M.V.S. Nagi Reddy, Government Adviser (Agriculture) Ambati Krishna Reddy, Agriculture Special Chief Secretary Poonam Malakondaiah, Finance Secretary Gulzar, Marketing Commissioner P.S. Pradyumna, Fisheries Commissioner K. Kannababu, Marketing Special Secretary Y. Madhusudan Reddy, and Horticulture Commissioner S.S. Sridhar were present.