VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has directed officials of agriculture and allied sectors to complete Agri Infra Fund projects as per the set deadline.Taking stock of the progress on Tuesday, he wanted the officials to review the progress every fortnight and at the same time ensure foolproof connectivity between village secretariats and Rythu Bharosa Kendras (RBKs). Officials were asked to expedite the works of NREGS, and conduct meetings every Sunday.
He wanted the officials to prepare an action plan for a fish landing centre at Kothapatnam in Prakasam district, and development of a fishing harbour in Kakinada. He instructed the officials to focus on developing a fishing harbour in Visakhapatnam. Explaining the progress, the officials said the total estimated cost of the projects Rs 15,743 crore.Multipurpose Facility Centres (MFCs), one of the key AIF projects, will be set up near RBKs to support farmers in all aspects. Under the MFCs, 16 types of facilities including dry storage, drying platforms, PDS warehouses, essaying equipment, and Janata Bazars, will be housed.
As many as 4,277 dry storage and drying platforms, 60 warehouses for PDS, 1,483 procurement centers, cold rooms, turmeric boilers, and turmeric polishers will be set up. In addition, 7,950 primary processing equipment, 10,678 essaying equipment, and as 10,678 procurement centre equipment will be facilitated.The state government is also constructing 9,899 bulk milk cooling units with an estimated cost of Rs 1,885.76 crore and 8,052 automatic milk collection units with Rs 942.77 crore across the state.
Lands have been identified at 9,051 locations for the BMCUs and construction works have already begun for 6,252 units. The target is to complete the construction of all BMCUs by September 30, 2021. Officials informed the CM that Amul had started milk collection in Prakasam, Kadapa and Chittoor districts on November 20, 2020, then expanded to Guntur district on March 29, 2021 and to some other villages in Chittoor district on April 3, 2021. It will also start collection of milk in West Godavari from Friday.
Over 10,000 food processing units to come up
A total of 10,111 food processing units will be set up in the state. Seed and millet processing units will be constructed at panchayat level. Primary and Secondary food processing units will also be built. Crops, which have scope for food processing, have been identified for cultivation in 25 parliamentary constituencies and lands are being identified for setting up the units. The target is to complete the construction of food processing units by the end of June next year.