Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh government signs 11 MoUs in the Agriculture sector

Amaravati: AP government entered into Memorandum of Understandings 11 companies to transfer technology and skill programmes to strengthen agriculture. The MoUs took place in the presence of chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, at his residence at Tadepalli in Guntur district on Monday.

"As part of these MoU's, farmers will be trained in organic and natural farming techniques. They will also be offered training in various agriculture domains", the Chief Minister announced on this occasion.

In a revolutionary measure to develop the agriculture sector, the government has signed the MoUs with reputed organisations across the country, informed the Chief Minister's Office in a statement after the programme completed.

Jagan said, "It is very important to partner with such eminent organisations for the development and improvement in the agriculture standards. Soon after forming the government, we have taken initiatives to provide good governance right at the village level itself".

As per the agreements, the organisations are going to provide holistic technical assistance for the farmers to create a sustainable environment and increase the income levels of the farmers. Institutions like Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), National Institute of Plant Health Management, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, Central Fertiliser Quality and Training Institute, National Seed Research and Training Institute etc have been partnered with the State government.

Kurasala Kannababu, Minister for Agriculture said that the Chief Minister is expecting new trends in Agriculture and planning to increase the value for the agricultural products. He further stated that these agreements with the organisations would benefit the farmers to a large extent, even as knowledge exchange.

"We are planning to increase the storage capacity, where every Mandal should have a minimum storage capacity of 5000 metric tonnes. Currently, farmers are being provided with free electricity for 9 hours and soon this will be made available across the State. Cold storages will be established on a large scale across the state. Rythu Bharosa centres are being operated successfully in all villages."

To benefit farmers in all the possible ways, 19,000 employees were placed in rythu bharosa centres. AP is the only state with the highest number of field assistants.

AP stands first in aquaculture in the entire country. "We are still trying to improve in all possible ways. We are setting up research labs based on the requirement across the State," said Minister for Fisheries, Mopidevi Venkataramana.

Dr GN Hariharan, Executive Director, MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai said they are very happy to collaborate with the AP government. Our foundation is actively working on the environment changes, global warming and its impact on agriculture.

Randhir Singh Poswal, Assistant Director-General, said that they would study the problems at the ground level and bring it to the notice of Chief Minister for required measures to be taken. Production of seeds, soil water testing, etc will be studied and farmers will be guided towards better practices.

Farmers will be given quality seeds, fertilisers and farmer equipment through rythu bharosa centres, the CM assured. Also, the farmers can sell their produce through these centres not less than the support price given by the government.

Chief Minister further stated that 50 percent of the farmers in the State are having less than 1.25 hectare of agriculture land and 70 percent of the farmers are with less than one hectare of land.