“The Rythu Bharosa Kendras Must Be Equipped with Drones”: CM Jagan Reddy

To help farmers in choosing the most suitable crops to cultivate along with the quantity and quality of fertilizers to be used in it, Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy instructed agricultural department officials to equip all Rythu Bharosa Kendras (RBKs) in the state with soil testing equipment by March 2023.

The Chief Minister told the officials that soil testing will significantly help to preserve soil fertility while lowering input costs and raising productivity during the agricultural department's review meeting on Monday. Soil testing tools should be available in every RBK.

The RBKs must be equipped with drones, and all farmers must have access to the agricultural equipment provided by community hiring centers, according to another directive. In order to help the farming community, he instructed them to place at least one drone in each RBK.

He stated that when working on paddy procurement utilizing e-cropping data, the officials of the civil supplies department should work closely with the agricultural department to assist farmers in selling their products for the Minimum Support Price (MSP). On November 29, farmers' bank accounts will be credited with input subsidies and zero-interest farm loans.

“No farmer should sell their produce below the MSP, and officials should view the paddy procurement as a challenge. Farmers should gain the most from purchasing paddy as a result of the millers' role being eliminated,” he insisted.

In order to help farmers, learn new skills from them, Agricultural University students should be required to complete an apprenticeship in the agricultural industry as part of the YSR Polambadi program.

When the officials learned that 22.92 lakh hectares will be used for the cultivation of Rabi, he instructed them to prepare the necessary fertilizers and high-quality seeds for distribution. The Chief Minister advised that the remaining 7% of e-KYC be expedited by sending SMSs to the farmers when informed that 93% of it had been completed.

The officials also informed him that the state had received 775 mm of rain from June until the present and that 186 lakh metric tonnes of food grains were expected to be produced during the Kharif season.

Additionally, he was informed that the AP Seeds Development Corporation had won the seeds category of the ICFA (Indian Chamber of Food and Agriculture) India Agri Business-2022 Award.