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HYDERABAD, June 15

BUOYED by pre-monsoon showers after two successive drought years, the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, has announced a series of initiatives to achieve foodgrains production of about 165 lakh tonne this kharif and rabi seasons.

Mr Naidu said the Government had drawn up a series of initiatives including the establishment of a task force headed by the Chief Secretary, and broad-basing scientific farming methods and providing call centre facility with knowhow from ICICI, and use Ku band telecasts to support farming operations across the State.

The task force, which will include the Agriculture Secretary as convenor, will monitor the progress of farm operations across the State on a daily basis and the high-powered body will be assisted by an 11-member panel of specialists drawn from different fields. The Government plans to increase surveillance of pests, set up units to forecast pest attacks and monitor rainfall and flows into reservoirs. Emphasis will be on water conservation to sustain farming operations.

The Government is in the process of constituting expert committees at the district level, besides deploying outdoor broadcasting vans to the field to ensure that farmers get timely advise and support on various issues and the latest technique in optimising farm output. This move assumes importance after the State, which achieved record foodgrains output in the year 2001, had to face two bad monsoons and consequent significant drop in production.

The Chief Minister said that the Government would utilise various communications including Ku and C bands, besides providing a toll-free telephone number facilitating interaction of farmers with a panel of experts. Further, zeroing in on the local concept, the Government plans to locate tele-clinics.

The Government plans to use a host of technologies including digital cameras to assess and analyse crop patterns and suggest ways to tackle local problems. It has also drawn up plans to use drip irrigation extensively.

The Government has already embarked on an elaborate exercise to map the copping pattern on about 85 lakh ha across zones in the State. This will help educate farmers on what is best suited for the crop management and the necessary follow up action. Based on this, the Government had prepared a list of 29 major crops and a few minor crops that may be taken up during the ensuing kharif crop season.

Highlighting the steps initiated to provide the necessary seeds for the farming community, Mr Naidu said apart from these, supply of several macro and micronutrients would be monitored and the district administration would ensure that they were made available when required. As against total demand of about 40 lakh quintals of seed, the Government agencies had, thus far, procured about 7.5 lakh quintals.

While ensuring that adequate credit lines would be made available through various financing wings in the State including the banking sector, Mr Naidu said that apart from this, the recently-conceptualised Rythu Mithra's (on the lines of DWCRA units) would be given an initial grant of Rs 2,500, which would be enhanced to Rs 15,000 after assessment of their performance.

With regard to Bt cotton, Mr Naidu said the Government had initiated an exercise to document the results achieved in areas where Bt cotton cultivation was taken up.

An analysis of this would show both the positive and negative aspects of Bt cotton cultivation, he said.

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