Niti Aayog member praises RTG and zero-budget farming

Vijayawada: NITI Aayog member professor Ramesh Chand has appreciated the functioning of Real Time Governance Centre (RTG) in Amaravati. He visited the secretariat at Velagapudi and inspected the functioning of RTG. Officials explained the working of RTG and the ‘1100 call centre’. Chand praised the zero-budget farming method in the state.
He said the central government has been providing minimum support price to 23 varieties of crops in 83% areas of the country.He visited AP to study the zero-budget cultivation. Interacting with the media, he said that AP has been observing best practices in agricultural and allied sectors, and is ahead in technology and natural farming.
He said the Union government has introduced several schemes in the budget to increase the income of farmers. According to him, the ‘Fasal Bheema Yojana’ will benefit farmers in a big way. He said the central government has been providing subsidies to encourage food processing units.Chand said that he has observed that farmers in the state are more interested in zero-budget farming, and praised the efforts of state government for motivating the farmers towards this direction. He lauded the measures taken by state govt towards encouraging micro irrigation, horticulture and crop change pattern.
He said farmers’ suicides can be prevented by providing minimum support price to the crop, and providing crop insurance to prevent loss to farmers. Speaking on the occasion, adviser to government on agriculture, T Vijay Kumar, said state government organised 704 programmes to encourage 40,656 farmers to switch over to zero-budget cultivation during 2016-17.