The Best Lesson: Anantapur Collector Gandham Chandrudu teaches kids to till
Anantapur Collector Gandham Chandrudu with his two sons and daughter with farmers at Marthadu village in Andhra Pradesh
Garladinne (Anantapur): Durga Bhavani, a woman farmer owning five acres of agriculture, had a surprise visitor on the day she had made arrangements to start tilling her land for sowing groundnut on Sunday. District Collector Gandham Chandrudu not only paid a surprise visit to her fields along with his children but also tilled the land along with her. The Collector said that tilling the land after a long gap had reminded him the days when he as a boy used to accompany his father and watch him till the land.
The District Collector who brought his young kids along with him to the field said that exposure of his children to farmers and crop fields would influence them and would help them in having proper understanding about the importance of land and agriculture. It will also help in kindling greater interest among them about farming activities.
An excited Durga Bhavani told the District Collector that this Kharif season, the farmers had experienced excess rainfall. She thanked the Collector for the timely supply of groundnut seeds at the doorstep of the farmers.
The Collector said that rainfall this season was quite encouraging and for the first time excess rainfall has been recorded in many mandals, including Garladinne. About 3.35 lakh quintals of groundnut seeds had been disbursed and 3 lakh farmers in the district availed subsidised groundnut seeds.
The targeted area for groundnut this Kharif is 4.89 lakh hectares but so far 1.65 lakh hectares has been covered under sowing of groundnut which meant that 19 percent of sowing has been completed. The farmers during their interaction with the Collector also urged him to ensure that HNSS water reach the three village tanks in the Garladinne mandal so that the farmers can go for three crops this year. A model farmer Thati Reddy who had the privilege to interact with USA President George Bush in 2004 told Chandrudu that many fruits are exported from the mandal.
The Collector observed that although the district is rated as a backward one, many good things which the nation is proud of are happening in the district.