Bhimavaram: West Godavari district collector Chadalawada Nagarani participated as the chief guest at ‘Polam Pilustondi’ programme organised by the Agriculture Departmentat Yanamadurru village of Bhimavaram mandal and made farmers aware of crop registration, the disadvantages of excessive fertiliser use, and various schemes intended for them. She inspected e-crop registration of farmer Bhogi Reddy Krishnamurthy and enquired about the details such as the variety being cultivated, how many acres are there, how many bags of urea are being used per acre.

She advised the farmers to restrict use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides and switch over to organic methods combined with modern methods. Fortunately, there is no shortage of fertilisers in West Godavari district. She suggested that nano urea liquid should be used as an alternative to urea. During the last financial year, the Central government had sanctioned Rs 350 crore to the state government due to the reduction in the use of fertilisers in the state, and these were used to purchase power tillers, drones and other machinery for the benefit of the farmers. She said that only locally consumed rice varieties should be cultivated. She said that the Central government has launched a new scheme called PM Pranam to encourage states to reduce the use of chemical fertilisers in agriculture.

The scheme was launched in the state with the aim of reducing the burden of subsidies on chemical fertilisers through this scheme, which will save 50 per cent of the subsidy savings. District Agriculture Officer Z Venkateswara Rao, Assistant Director of Agriculture Department KAS Srinivasa Rao, AVOs YVS Prasad, Z Bala Nageswaramma, Sarpanch B Ramamurthy, MPDO M Murali Gangadhar Rao, Water Association Vice-President Bhogi Reddy Krishnamurthy, farmers, and others were present.