Workshops to compile farmers’ issues planned

Amalapuram: District collector Mahesh Kumar directed officials of the Agriculture, Fisheries, and Horticulture departments to conduct workshops at every Rythu Seva Kendra on December 3 and compile the farmers’ issues in an organised manner. He held a meeting with officials of allied agriculture departments at the Collectorate on Monday. He said that during the six-day “Rythanna Meekosam” programme held from November 24, data of 1,45,345 farmer families across 22 mandals was recorded and uploaded with photographs. He instructed officials to conduct RSK level workshops, identify farmers’ problems, and prepare detailed reports.

He asked them to collect crop-wise and farmer-wise issues for the current Rabi, upcoming Kharif, and next Rabi seasons, and encourage farmers to adopt crop diversification for better returns. He stressed promoting natural and organic farming methods to help farmers shift towards sustainable practices. He advised farmers not to cultivate paddy using borewell water during the Rabi season.

He clarified that increasing yield and reducing input costs should be the priority. He directed officials to promote cow-based natural farming methods and organic production to enhance value and improve public health through chemical-free produce. He instructed that the use of urea during the second phase of Rabi should be reduced by 20 per cent and replaced with nano urea. He asked officers to speed up the registration of village tanks. Joint collector T Nishanthi, District Agriculture Officer Bosu Babu, District Horticulture Officer BV Ramana, District Fisheries Officer PV Srinivasa Rao, Agriculture Department Deputy Director Venkata Ramarao and others attended the meeting.