VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday directed officials of the agriculture and allied departments to provide drip and sprinkler facilities to all small and marginal farmers within the stipulated time. During the review meeting on horticulture, micro irrigation and agri infra at his camp office in Tadepalli near here, the chief minister said the government is drilling borewells and providing micro irrigation facilities to the small and marginal farmers to help them get good yields.“All the works should be done in saturation mode and every eligible person should benefit from the schemes being implemented. There should be no scope for corruption.” He wanted the officials to prepare an action plan to benefit the small and marginal farmers.
The chief minister suggested that the officials give priority to the farmers with less than 10 acres of land in Rayalaseema and Prakasam, and less than five acres in other places in providing drip and sprinkler facilities. He directed the officials to brainstorm and prepare an action plan regarding the same. “Procurement of micro-irrigation facilities through reverse tendering will help reduce the cost and benefit more farmers. The cost of drip and sprinkler systems will be concluded after taking the subsidies of central government and state government into consideration.”
On issues related to sericulture, Jagan asked the officials to focus on solving the problems of farmers of mulberry. The Chief Minister also reviewed setting-up of multi purpose facility centres as part of Agri Infra. “Multi-purpose facility centres with an estimated budget of `14,562 crore, will provide 14 types of facilities to farmers including dry storage, drying platform, godowns, horticulture infrastructure, primary processing centres, collection centres, cold rooms for storage, custom hiring centres, primary processing centres, assaying equipment, Janata Bazaars, procurement centres and e-marketing etc,’’ the chief minister said and asked the officials to promote organic and natural farming in the limits of every Rythu Bharosa Kendra.