The Hindu Business Line : AP strives for low crop costs, improved productivity: CM

THE Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajashekhara Reddy, said the immediate concerns of his Government over the agriculture sector was to decrease the cost of cultivation and increase productivity by promoting eco-friendly technologies such as integrated pest management and water conservation.

Interacting with the Chairman of National Commission of Farmers, Prof M.S. Swaminathan, here on Thursday, the Chief Minister explained various steps being taken up by the State Government to address these concerns.

The steps include increasing the seed replacement ratio, providing institutional credit, offering farmer-friendly crop insurance facility by encouraging rainfed farming and crop diversification, improving farm produce quality and competitiveness in the international market and empowering farmers in crop management technologies and market intelligence, the Chief Minister said according to an official release.

Dr Reddy said 2,200 villages are currently being developed as seed villages to produce 3.5-lakh quintals of seed by farmers themselves under the technical guidance of the department officials and scientists.

The State Government is also keen on promoting eco-friendly technologies such as vermi compost units in 20,000 villages, green manures in 2.5 lakh hectares and development of 2,000 villages as bio-villages. It would distribute 10,000 soil-testing kits to Rythu Mithra groups.

The Government is committed to ensure availability of quality inputs such as seed, fertilisers and pesticides to the farmers by strengthening 83 soil-testing labs, increasing fertiliser testing labs from 5 to 22, increasing seed-testing labs from 3 to 22 and bio-agent labs from 14 to 22.

As against the credit delivery of Rs 9,019 crore in 2003-04, the Government is targeting disbursals of Rs 16,750 crore during 2005-06.

Till date, Rs 8,661 crore was disbursed during khariff 2005.

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