Naidu plans 'Hi-tech' touch to farm sector

HYDERABAD: Tech-savvy Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu wants to give 'hitech' touch to farm sector to make agriculture a profitable profession. He wants to take the assistance of remote sensing technology to map the soil health across the state to guide the farmers to apply balanced fertilisers suitable to the respective soil so as to reduce the cost of cultivation and also to get quality agricultural production.

At the same time, focus will also be laid on 'mechanised-farming' and 'drought-proofing of rainfed areas'. While releasing white paper on the situation of agriculture sector in the reorganised state on Wednesday here, Naidu unveiled his vision for farm sector with objectives of increasing the productivity of crops and lessening the financial burden on farmers by adopting scientific methods.

'Our main goal is to make agriculture in AP, climate resilient, sustainable, productive and profitable one. We want to transform agriculture from a way of life into an enterprise,' said Naidu while releasing the white paper. The AP chief minister claimed that his government was planning to achieve these objectives by using advanced tools like soil health mapping and remote sensing to increase agricultural production.

'Our government accords highest priority to the agriculture sector and the welfare of farmers. The primary focus is on cost reduction. We want to increase productivity by strengthening the extension system and introducing new seed varieties,' Naidu said.

He futher went on adding to say, 'We want to adopt appropriate farm mechanisation technics. Our focus will be on optimum use of fertilisers to maintain sustainable soil health'. According to Naidu to get more income from agriculture sector, the government wants to encourage agri-based industries in each district.

For this, the government is planning to announce a separate policy. Naidu further disclosed that to enhance the agriculture production across the state, the government had decided to take the help of ongoing research in various agricultural universities.

'Focus will be for the development of suitable high yielding varieties in paddy, ground nut, pulses and other corps which are resistant to pests and diseases with tolerance to floods,' he remarked.

The AP chief minister said the government would also lay equal stress on developing various agriculture- related sectors such as horticulture, livestock, forestry and fisheries in the state.

The government wants to integrate all the allied departments of agriculture such as horticulture, animal husbandry, irrigation, sericulture, fisheries etc to reduce cultivation cost.

Naidu Accuses Congress of ruining agriculture

Alleging that the 10-year regime of the previous Congress government in united AP had ruined the agriculture sector completely, Naidu said the failure of the previous government in addressing the sufferings of farmers had forced 1,943 farmers to end their lives.

'The number of farmers' suicides from 1994 to 2003 was just 310. The then Congress leadership tried to politicise this by bringing AICC chief Sonia Gandhi to Anantapur at that time. But, in the past ten years, as many as 1,943 farmers had committed suicides,' he remarked.