VIJAYAWADA: The State government is contemplating bringing out a millets policy to encourage farmers to go for crop diversification. In an informal interaction with mediapersons in the Secretariat on Tuesday, Minister for Agriculture Kakani Govardhan Reddy said they are still working out the new policy and it will be announced soon. The policy will be implemented in the State in a phased manner.
Kakani said crop diversification is the need of the hour to ensure maximum income generation for farmers, but opined that it will take time to convince them. In the last three years, the agriculture sector has fared well and there is surplus foodgrains production thanks to timely rains. Crop diversification will be immensely beneficial to farmers as more supply and less demand affects the prices agricultural produce, he felt.
Maintaining that the Jagan Mohan Reddy government is pro-farmer, giving top priority to agriculture and allied sectors, Kakani said every programme launched by the CM, not just in agriculture, is being done on saturation basis. “No other government has done so,” he asserted.
Mentioning the recent distribution of tractors under the Yantra Seva (farm mechanisation) scheme, the Agriculture Minister said choice of tractors is left to farmers and the government is not involved in it. The purview of a RBKS is taken as a unit to provide farm equipment to farmers in a saturation mode. Every effort is being made to negate the role of middlemen in every scheme and similar measures have been taken to ensure that there is no involvement of millers in paddy procurement, he averred.