The Andhra Pradesh government has agreed to implement almost all the recommendations made by the Mohan Kanda committee, which was constituted to study the recent ‘crop holiday’ declared by the farmers in Godavari districts.
In a high-level meeting held here on Saturday, chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy discussed at length with deputy chief minister Damodara Rajanarasimha, revenue minister N Raghuveera Reddy, animal husbandry minister P Viswarup and senior officials of the departments concerned on the report and approved all most all the recommendations.
The committee, headed by former chief secretary Mohan Kanda, in its report submitted to the government recently, pointed out gross negligence of the officials at various levels. The committee toured the affected districts for 20 days and interacted with the farmers in distress, who stated that they were forced to declare a crop holiday as they failed to receive remunerative prices for their produce.
The government has agreed for canal closure between April 15 and May 15 every year, subject to availability of water. It would also take up modernisation of agriculture canals and drainage channels in a phased manner.
Regarding the increase in minimum support price (MSP), the state government said the matter was under the purview of Centre. However, it has pursued with the Centre to raise the MSP by about Rs 200 per quintal. The Centre partially considered it by raising the MSP by Rs 80 per quintal from the kharif season this year, a release said.
Reddy said that the government had initiated direct procurement measures during 2010 - 2011 by procuring 2. million tonne of paddy. It is now planned to increase the procurement to 4-5 million tonne during 2011-12. Further, additional godown space of 5 million tonne would be provided whenever necessary, he said.