Face-To-Face With Farmers: Will speed up paddy procurement says CM Naidu

Penamaluru (Krishna dist): Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Friday asked the District Agricul-ture Officers to review agricultural profiles and problems faced by the farmers and see that if they could take up agricultural operations early so that the crop does not get affected by rains and cyclones that occur this time of the year.

In a face-to-face interaction with the Chief Minister, the farmers said that they were not getting the proper price as the crops that are harvested during this time are getting affected by untimely rains.

They also told him that all the water channels were full of silt, and no one ever both-ered to clean them. Even canals were encroached, they added.

The situa-tion was so grave that even cleaning of the water sources is not possible, the farmers said.

At this point, Naidu asked the officials to take up a detailed study and see that if the pipelines could be laid to supply water with gravity.

The farm-ers suggested that motors could be fixed to supply water, but Naidu said if that was done then it would add to the cost as motors will require power. He asked Minister Nadendla Manohar and officials to come up with proposals so that the farmers could be given water early and see that the harvesting and disposing the crop was over before winter rains and cyclones occur.

The Chief Minister, later addressing the media, said the farmers have suf-fered heavy losses as the previous government did not pay the amounts to them after procuring grain from them.

After the NDA government assumed the charge the amount was being paid to the farmers within 48 hours of purchasing the paddy. About 93 per cent of the farmers were paid money within 24 hours of procure-ment and till now Rs 4,730 crore is credited to the accounts of farmers in various parts of the state,” he said.

Stating that necessary measures will certainly be taken to increase the revenue of the farmers, Chandrababu felt that the farming community is happier now.

He announced that the silo system will soon be brought in closer to the farmers through which they can market their products.

The stored grain will get a much better price if this system comes into force, he said.

The Chief Minister advised the farmers to go for crops which have a bet-ter demand in the market, where investment is less while the profit is more. He also emphasized reduction in use of pesticides.

Chandrababu made it clear that stringent action will be initiated against the middlemen and promised to initiate steps to control the illegal transport of rice stocks. He said the government will put an end to smuggling and recycling rice.”