Farming students call off strike
Minister for Agriculture Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy said students of 11 agriculture colleges called off their strike in his presence on Wednesday following the state government’s decision on cancellation of G.O 64 and assurance on continuation of G.O 16.
Amaravati: Minister for Agriculture Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy said students of 11 agriculture colleges called off their strike in his presence on Wednesday following the state government’s decision on cancellation of G.O 64 and assurance on continuation of G.O 16.
Speaking at a press conference at Secretariat on Wednesday, Somireddy said that Union government would be bringing a new Act for all agriculture colleges in the country and state government would constitute a three-member committee to examine the representations of agriculture colleges. He also said farmers could not cultivate groundnut in four lakh hectares due to insufficient rains in kharif season.
He said the government was taking steps to divert farmers for alternative crops such as black gram and green gram. The state government spent Rs 267.90 crore for supplying seed for subsidy rates to farmers, he said.
The Minister said the normal cultivation area decreased to 31.26 lakh hectares this season from 33.38 lakh hectares. He said around 54 lakh soil testing cards were distributed to farmers till now. Around 61 tonnes of micro nutrients were distributed for farmers and Rs 1,900 crore would be given to farmers as input subsidy.
The Minister also said Rs 657 crore was given as crop insurance to farmers who lost crops in 2016 kharif season and remaining Rs 552 crore would be given to them soon. He said the government decided to distribute 11,000 Rythu Radhalu (Tractors) to farmers this year and 70 per cent of them would be supplied by end of this month.
