AP To Set Up Agriculture Advisory Boards

Amaravati: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy held a review meeting on the distribution of PDS rice and procurement of paddy at farm gates through RBKs and directed the officials to activate agriculture advisory boards and create awareness on all aspects to the board members ensuring they support farmers at all times starting from crop planning.

During the review meeting held at the camp office here on Friday, the Chief Minister said Agriculture advisory boards should function in coordination with RBKs and added that Women farmers should be involved in all the activities. He said the civil supplies minister will monitor the responsibilities and functioning of these committees and added that no farmer should be troubled in this regard. He said the advisory boards should inform the farmers prior to crops to be grown and that will be procured. He said farmers should be informed on alternative crops to be grown if paddy is not profitable due to various reasons and instructed the officials to ensure the income of farmers is not reduced. 

The Chief Minister said there should be no involvement of millers in paddy procurement and only officials should know the details of corp going to the millers. He said District Collectors should procure gunny bags if necessary and added that meters are available at RBKs to measure moisture content during paddy procurement. He said not to send paddy to the nearest miller for cost control in transporting it to the mills and added that the district should be taken as a unit and paddy should be sent to mills on that basis. He said paddy procurement should be done by the time as promised earlier and the whole process has to be done by the government.

He said the civil supplies department also should own RBKs as it is the department's responsibility to supply the seeds as requested by the farmers and added that the agriculture department should ensure farmers are not cheated by buying seeds other than RBKs. He said both the departments should work collaboratively from e cropping to marketing of the crop. He said there should not be any mistake in door delivery of PDS rice and added that Mobile dispensing units should ensure no one is missed in taking the ration. He said distribution of rice should be completed in stipulated time and waded to procure required weighing scales. He directed the officials not to compromise over the quality of rice and said to prepare an action plan for taking ration at village/ward secretariat in case they miss to take at home.

The officials informed the Chief Minister that the government has set a target to procure 45.20 lakh tons of paddy in this (2020-21) rabi season and added that that would be 15 percent more compared to last year. They said production of 65.23 lakh tons of paddy is estimated this year and added that they were procuring 50,000 metric tons of paddy per day at present and it would be increased to 70,000 metric tons soon. The officials of the civil supplies department said paddy procurement centers (PPCs) were set up at RBKs level at all required places to procure paddy at farm gates. The staff off PPCs would set up counters at RBKs and the farmers who want to sell their products should register at the counter and get a coupon with details of the date of procurement. The staff of PPCs would go to farmers and procure the crop at farm gates, they said. 

Civil Supplies Minister Kodali Venkateswara Rao, Agriculture Special Chief Secretary Poonam Malakondaiah, Civil Supplies Commissioner Kona Shasidar, Civil Supplies VC MD A Surya Kumari, Agriculture Commissioner H Arun Kumar, and other officials were present.