The Hindu : A.P. Govt. to the rescue of small ryots

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 21, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

A.P. Govt. to the rescue of small ryots

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD OCT. 20. The Andhra Pradesh Government has assured that there is no scarcity of subsidised seed for immediate sowing as alternative crop as part of the drought contingency plan and said 1.70 lakh quintals of seed of all varieties are being made available.

The seed is to be sold at 50 per cent subsidy for which the Government has released Rs. 20 crores. The subsidy will be given subject to a maximum of two hectares for each farmer and the maximum amount of subsidy is Rs. 625 a hectare for all crops together. The supply of subsidised seed has been pegged at 50 kg a hectare for paddy, 20 kg a hectare for greengram, blackgram and maize crops, 5 kg for sunflower and gingelly, 50 kg for bengalgram and 10 kg for jowar, redgram and castor crops.

Giving this information at a news conference here on Sunday, the Agriculture Minister, Vadde Sobhanadriswara Rao, said while it was proposed to cover an area of five lakh hectares under the plan, the area already covered was 4.01 lakh hectares. Of the 1.70 lakh quintals of seed available as against 1.57 lakh quintals in the plan last year, the quantity of seed already sold was 68,066 quintals, costing Rs. 30.52 crores. The Government had positioned 1.07 lakh quintals at 433 counters, 112 more than last year, throughout the State till date.

The Minister added that the major sales so far had been of paddy - 11,971 quintals, bengalgram - 23,671 quintals, sunflower - 10,597 quintals and blackgram - 10,548 quintals.

The A.P. State Seed Development Corporation (APSSDC) had been appointed the nodal agency for supplying the seed while the A.P. Oilfed is the distributing agency for Anantapur, Cuddapah, Chittoor, Kurnool, Mahboobnagar and Ranga Reddy districts. The A.P. Seeds is the distributing agency for other districts.

Mr. Rao said reasonable prices had been fixed for the supply of the subsidised seed. For example, the price of paddy seed (all varieties) is Rs. 10 a kg while the same was sold at Rs. 10.70 to 11 a kg in kharif. Sunflower will cost Rs. 170 a kg, Rs. 10 less than the sale price of last year.

Though the prevailing market prices are as high as Rs. 200 to Rs. 260 a kg, all private companies which had entered into an MoU with the Government for sale of sunflower had been persuaded to sell their hybrid varieties at reduced price, the Minister said.

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