Minister for Agriculture Tummala Nageswara Rao has stated that there is a sudden spurt in demand for green manure seed across the State with rains occurring in different parts over the last one week, and farmers have purchased over 20,158 quintals already out of the 62,794 quintal seed made available so far.
At a meeting held by the Minister on Friday to review the available green manure, fertilizer and seeds of various crops to be cultivated in the coming Kharif or Vanakalam season, he said that the government had made available 50,942 quintals of seed of ‘jeeluga’ (‘dhaincha’ – sesbania), 11,616 quintals of jute and 236 quintals of ‘pillipesara’ (phaseolus trilobus).
The Minister instructed the authorities to coordinate with seed companies regularly and make available the seed of various crops in time. On bringing to his notice the dues pertaining to last year to the seed companies, he said he would ensure they were cleared soon. He stated that a total of 15.75 lakh quintals of seed of various crops in addition to 121.06 lakh packets of BG-II cotton seed were planned to be supplied this year.
Of the 56 lakh packets of cotton seed made available already, farmers have purchased 7.22 lakh packets so far. He stated that all brands of BG-II seed would get the same yield and suggested farmers not to hanker for only a couple of brands. Mr. Rao stated that Agriculture officers were conducting awareness camps in every village about spurious or poor quality seed.
Fine variety paddy seed
Agriculture officials informed him that nearly 13.32 lakh quintals of fine variety paddy were also being made available following the government decision to pay bonus of ₹500 per quintal to fine paddy. About fertilizer, he said that 6.26 lakh tonnes of urea, 0.76 lakh tonnes of DAP, 3.84 lakh tonnes of complex and 0.29 lakh tonnes of MoP were made available so far, much higher compared to the availability on the same day last year.
Meanwhile, at a seed mela held at PJTSAU, Commissioner of Agriculture B. Gopi said plans were made for availability of various crops in districts based on demand. He said supply of green manure seed was going at a brisk pace.
Rythu Bharosa guidelines
At another meeting held in the Agriculture Minister’s chambers, he discussed about guidelines for Rythu Bharosa and crop insurance scheme (PMFBY) to be implemented from Kharif, with Kisan Congress leader M. Kodanda Reddy, Anvesh Reddy, and N. Venkateshwarlu.
