APERC for panel to study crop patterns

The Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) advised the state government to appoint a committee to study all the issues involved in changing the cropping pattern. The government wants to change the cropping patterns of water intensive crops like paddy to irrigated dry (ID) crops.

Addressing the first meeting of the recently constituted advisory board of APERC on Monday, G P Rao, the chairman of the commission, observed that energy conservation measures in the heavily subsidised agriculture sector was the need of the hour as it saved money besides conserving ground water.

Reacting to a suggestion by a member of the advisory board that the government's campaign for the change in cropping pattern has been ineffective as the market conditions are not in favour of ID crops, the chairman said that all the issues have to be studied before taking more concrete steps in this regard.

The APERC chairman also said that government subsidies should always be kept at a minimum. "Farmers are being given around Rs 1.50 subsidy on each unit they consume which is very high by any standard. Subsidies worth Rs 1,513 crore were provided by the government to the power sector alone at the cost of other important sectors such as education and health which lack basic requirements like medicines and blackboards. This imbalance must be rectified," he said.