VIJAYAWADA: Emphasising the need to expedite agriculture infrastructure projects in the State this year, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday asked the officials to ensure all those projects are available for agriculture and allied sectors at the earliest.Reviewing the progress of the works taken up for strengthening the agriculture infrastructure, the Chief Minister stressed that change should be visible and all the works including construction of warehouses should be put on a fast-track.
The Chief Minister took stock of the financing and tie-ups related to 15 various projects including dry storage - drying platforms, warehouses, infrastructure in horticulture, primary processing centres, assaying equipment, procurement centres, e-marketing, mega custom hiring hubs, custom hiring centres at RBK level, combined harvesters in paddy grown districts, MACs-BMCs, aqua infra, fishing harbours-fish landing centres, food processing centres and Infrastructure in animal husbandry department. The State government has been spending about Rs 16,320.83 crore on these projects.
He said there is a good demand for organic and natural farming products across the globe and the farmers should take advantage of the opportunities. Stressing that a custom hiring centre on organic farming should be set up at every RBK by next year, he directed the officials to create awareness among farmers on the same. He directed the officials to arrange machinery and equipment required for organic and natural farming at every RBK and said to ensure better rates for products of organic and natural farming methods and come up with a policy to provide incentives to farmers who use organic and natural farming methods.
The officials informed the Chief Minister that they have almost completed land acquisition for the construction of godowns and 1,165 godowns are being constructed. They said construction of godowns has started at 278 locations and added that equipment for measuring weight and moisture are being made available to prevent farmers from being cheated.
During the review on farm machinery, tools and equipment being made available to farmers under YSR Yantra Seva scheme, the officials informed the Chief Minister that they have made 3,497 units available for farmers. They said the state government has been setting up seeds and millet primary processing centres at 33 locations on the basis of parliamentary constituencies and these processing centres will be made available from Kharif 2022. They said processing will help farmers to get good prices.
The process of setting up 13 secondary processing units is on a fast-track mode. As many as 175 ambulances for animals, one in each constituency, have been arranged and they will start functioning in March. Under Jagananna Palavelluva scheme, 28,00,502 liters of milk was being collected per month in about 1,100 villages and 2.03 crore liters of milk was collected so far, the officials said. In all, Rs 86.58 crore was paid to farmers so far and additional benefit to them is Rs 14.68 crore.
The officials informed the Chief Minister that they are providing around 80,000 jobs directly and indirectly through Aqua hubs and spokes. They said 70 aqua hubs and 14,000 spokes will be set up by June and the target of setting up 3 pre-processing plants and ten processing plants is in process and added that they have set up nine societies for the same.
The works related to fishing harbours in Juvvaladinne, Nizampatnam and Machilipatnam are in progress and the works in Uppada will begin soon, the officials said and added that they will make efforts to complete the works within four months. Works in Pudimadaka, Biyyaputhippa, Vodarevu and Kothapatnam will start in the second phase and they will be completed by the end of December 2022.