Agriculture Minister Kinjarapu Atchannaidu has directed the officials to take strong measures to ensure that there is no shortage of seeds and fertilizers in the state for the farmers during the rabi season. He said that steps should be taken to provide reports on the required seeds and fertilizers according to the crops grown in the respective districts.
He spoke at a review meeting held with senior officials of AP Seeds, Markfed and AP WareHousing Corporations at the Secretariat. He said that steps should be taken to provide quality seeds to farmers on subsidized basis under the auspices of AP Seeds.
He ordered that steps should be taken to speed up the establishment of a mega seed park in the state and that the seed production fields available in 750 acres in 16 places across the state should be utilized to the full. He suggested that subsidies should be provided from the seed stage to increase the cultivation and consumption of small and cereal grains and encourage cultivation.
Farmers and farmer producer associations should be provided with the facility of selling their crops after getting a remunerative price by renting out godowns at a 35 percent subsidy, steps should be taken to ensure that the godowns under the WareHousing Corporation are utilized 100 percent, and immediate steps should be taken for the repairs of godowns and the appointment of necessary staff, he added.
The Minister suggested that farmers should be made aware of the subsidies provided by the government as part of the Polam Kamandi program. Markfed officials were instructed to supply fertilizers to self-help, farmer producers and cooperative societies at the village level as per their requirement and make fertilizers available to farmers in abundance.
Principal Secretary of Agriculture Budithi Rajasekhar, Commissioner of Agriculture Delhi Rao, Markfed MD Manjeer Jilani Saman, MD of WareHousing Corporation Suresh Kumar and others participated in this meeting.