Eluru: Officials told to follow ‘farmer-friendly’ system in purchasing paddy

Eluru: Joint West Godavari ZP chairperson G Padmasri has directed the officials to evolve a farmer-friendly system while purchasing paddy from farmers.

She reviewed meeting with officials on various issues pertaining to procurement at ZP office here on Thursday.

Officials are asked to prepare a constructive plan for procurement as it is expected that over six-lakh metric tonnes will be produced during the kharif season.

Custodian officials are suggested to work more responsibly to ensure that no complaints come from farmers. Usually, the farmers have been complaining about differences in weighing at Rythu Bharosa Kendras and rice mills.

The rice mills also did not satisfy farmers in deciding the moisture content in paddy. The gunny bags contain holes and dissatisfactory transportation arrangements are among other complaints from the farmers, she said.

She also directed officials to convene meetings of the mandal agriculture advisory council and focus on the problems raised by farmers and said that though the entire paddy purchase was carried out online, the officials should try to find and solve problems faced by the farmers at field-level.

The ZP chairperson instructed the irrigation department officials to constructively implement a term-wise distribution system so that all the remote areas under Pedapadu, Kaikaluru receive water for irrigation and drinking purposes from Krishna canal.

ZP CEO K Ravi Kumar, ZP vice-chairpersons Srilekha and Vijayababu, district agricultural officer Y Rama Krishna and officials of different departments were present.