The state government has increased the input subsidy to farmers from `6,000 to `10,000 per hectare with immediate effect.
Making this announcement while inaugurating Rytu Sadassulu, which are to be held in each revenue division of the state, at the Police Parade Grounds here Thursday, chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy said the decision would place a further burden of `1,663 crore per year on the exchequer.
Reddy said his government would stand by the farmer and help him at every stage. “My aim is to help the farmer and make agriculture profitable,” he said.
Giving details of Rytu Sadassulu, he said scientists, bankers, and officials of agriculture, horticulture, sericulture and other departments would participate in the Sadassulu to be held in all revenue divisions of the state from May 9 to 13. The seminars were intended to educate farmers reducing the input cost and getting maximum yield so that cultivation would become profitable for him.
The government has declared a minimum support price of Rs 1,500 per quintal of paddy while millers are paying Rs 1,600 to Rs 1,800. He said the government spent Rs 70,000 crore on Jalayagnam and provided irrigation facility to 20 lakh acres and efforts were on to provide the facility for another 10 lakh acres by June this year.
Bankers will sanction `72,000-cr loans to farmers in the state in the current financial year. He claimed that only the Congress government in Andhra Pradesh was providing interest-free loans to farmers and no other state government was doing it. Referring to the power crisis, he said his Congress government would overcome it in two months but did not elaborate how it would accomplish it.
Minister for agriculture Kanna Lakshminarayan, who spoke earlier, explained the objectives of Rytu Sadassulu. Rural development minister Dokka Manikya Vara Prasad, minister for co-operation Kasu Venkata Krishna Reddy, Guntur MP Rayapati Sambasiva Rao, MLAs Gade Venkata Reddy, district collector Suresh Kumar, and others were present.