Government to make agriculture a profitable activity

Eluru: Agriculture Minister Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy said that the State government has allotted Rs 18,000 crore for agriculture with a view to make agriculture a profitable activity and help the farmers. The government is ready to further allocate another Rs 1,000 crore to the sector, he said.

Somireddy inaugurated the State-sponsored “Sankalpamtho Saakaram” programme at Dr YSR Horticulture University at Venkataramannagudem in Tadepalligudem rural mandal on Wednesday. Unguturu MLA Ganni Veeranjaneyulu presided over the meeting. Speaking at the meeting, the Minister said the TDP is the only government to introduce a special budget for agriculture in the country and this credit goes to Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.

It was decided to sanction 10,000 tractors on subsidy to the farmers and of which West Godavari district got 858 tractors under Rythu Radham project. He suggested to the officials and MLAs to prepare the farmers list for the distribution of tractors.

He pointed out that the micro-nutrients were also sanctioned to the farmers on 100 per cent subsidy besides sanctioning the modern equipment like rotavators, transplantation, sprayers on various subsidies. Somireddy said that the government decided to encourage the farmers towards horticulture crops which benefit them financially. The government is also encouraging natural farming in the state and the Premji foundation has come forward and agreed to provide Rs 100 crore for natural farming in the State. This method of cultivation was introduced in 190 clusters last year.

Those adopting natural farming were getting better market price for their products when compared to ryots adopting other methods of cultivation.

He said that the TDP-BJP alliance would continue and the Centre and State governments led by Narendra Modi and Chandrababu Naidu respectively have been implementing the development activities without any compromise.

Endowments Minister Pydikondala Manikyala pointed out that a West Godavari district farmer has achieved 60 bags of paddy per acre which is record production during the last two years in the State. Labour Minister Pithani Satyanarayana, MPs Maganti Venkateswara Rao,

Thota Sitaramalakshmi, Gokaraju Gangaraju, ZP Chairman Mullapudi Bapiraju and others spoke on the occasion. Earlier, the Agriculture Minister inaugurated new buildings of KVK administrative block and farmers guest house constructed at a cost of Rs 110 crore at YSR Horticulture University campus.

He inspected the mobile soil testing vehicle along with other Ministers, MPs and University Vice-Chancellor Chiranjeevi Chowdhary, Director RVSK Reddy and others.