Hold loan melas to help tenant farmers: Raghuveera

Agriculture Minister N Raghuveera Reddy on Saturday directed officials to hold melas so that tenant farmers in the state can avail of the opportunity to buy seeds and fertilisers.

Mr Raghuveera Reddy further directed officials to ensure that adequate quantity of fertilisers reach the farmers.

The Agriculture Minister was speaking to officials through a videoconferencing on Saturday. He said that contrary to claims by the opposition, there is no shortage of fertilisers for the farmers. Mr Raghuveera Reddy said that this was due to the effective steps taken by the government to ensure that the distribution chain is problem-free.

Mr Raghuveera Reddy revealed that Chief Minister K Rosaiah had written to the Centre requesting it to supply an additional 60 MT of urea apart from the four lakh MT due to arrive in the state.

The Minister said that the copious rainfall in the state has created an additional demand for the fertiliser, resulting in minor glitches in its availability.

Mr Raghuveera Reddy reminded Agriculture Department officials that their responsibility lay in providing the required quantity of fertilisers to farmers. He directed the officials to monitor and review the marketing of fertilisers on a regular basis.

The Agriculture Minister also told the officials to ensure that fertilisers were not smuggled to neighbouring states as Karnataka, Maharashtra and Orissa were facing an acute shortage.

He also told officials to ensure that no dealer fleeced the farmers by selling the fertilisers at a price higher than listed. He warned of stern action against erring dealers.

Mr Raghuveera Reddy also reminded that Rs 10,000 crore in crop loans have been disbursed to the farmers by the government so far and added that another Rs 7,000 crore as crop loans would be disbursed by September-end.