Jagan wants soil testing equipment at all RBKs in AP by March 2023

AMARAVATI: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy on Monday directed agricultural department officials to provide all Rythu Bharosa Kendras (RBKs) in the state with soil testing equipment by March next year to assist farmers in determining the suitability of crops to be cultivated as well as the quantity and quality of fertilisers to be used in cultivation.

The Chief Minister conducted a review of the agricultural department at the State Secretariat here. Speaking on the occasion, he said that soil testing would help a great deal in protecting soil fertility while lowering input costs and raising output. Soil testing equipment should be available in every single RBK, he said.

YS Jagan directed the officials to equip the RBKs with drones and to make agricultural machinery available to all farmers through community hiring centres.

Civil supplies officials should work closely with the Agricultural Department to help farmers sell their produce for Minimum Support Price(MSP) while working on paddy procurement using e-cropping data, he said. Farmers' bank accounts will be credited with input subsidies and zero-interest farm loans on November 29, 2022.

The Chief Minister insisted on the officials to view paddy procurement as a challenge and that no farmer should sell his agricultural produce for less than the MSP. Farmers should benefit the most from paddy procurement now that the millers' role has been eliminated, he added.

Agricultural University students should undergo apprenticeship in agricultural fields as part of the YSR Polambadi programme, as this would help farmers develop knowledge from them.

When officials informed him that Rabi would be grown in 22.92 lakh hectors, he instructed them to prepare the necessary fertilisers and quality seeds for distribution. When informed that 93 percent of e-KYC had been completed, the Chief Minister proposed that the remaining 7 percent be expedited by sending SMSs to farmers.

Officials also informed him that the state had received 775 mm of rain since June and that food grain production in the Kharif season was expected to be around 186 lakh metric tonnes.

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