Programme Coordinator explained different activities carried out by the KVK in its operational area and urged farmers to utilize the services of the KVK.

Sri Vijay Kumar, Asst.Manager, Agricultural Insurance Company of India, Hyderabad explained in detail about the PMFBY scheme and its advantages over the previous insurance schemes. He clarified all the doubts raised by the farmers during the interaction section.

Hon’ble Member of Parliament Dr.N.Siva Prasad while addressing the gathering stated that Agriculture is the backbone of the Country and appreciated the selfless efforts of farmers in producing the food for the nation inspite of many hindrances. PMFBY is a boon to protect the farmers from the vagaries of nature and ensure some financial support to the farmers even in crop losses. He said that he is ready to carry any problems of the farmers to the Parliament and get them solved.

Hon’ble MLA Sri Chinthalahis addressRamafelt thatChandramoremore Redd programmes need to be introduced for the benefit of rainfed farmers especially as the western part of

the district is a drought prone area and migration of the farmers from agriculture to other enterprises is very common. Farmers should be motivated and supported to make agriculture a sustainable and profitable source of income.

Hon’ble Minister Sri B.Gopala Krishna Reddy garu expressed that farmers should adopt water conservation measures to produce more per drop of water. Govt. of A.P is supporting farmers to construct farm ponds in the name of ‘Panta Sanjeevini’and supplying rainguns to the farmers on subsidy basis. Due to faster depletion of the ground water, farmers should go diversified agriculture instead of Paddy crop alone. Both central and state governments are supporting the farming community in a big way through different irrigation schemes and subsidy schemes.

Sri M.Gopal Reddy, President, A.P.State Federation of Farmers in his address urged both Central and State Governments that additional budget and schemes should be allocated for the benefit of the farming community and give a solution for the unsolved marketing problem.

Brochure on PMFBY, folder on different items with Korra, Pamphlets on pest and disease management in Paddy, Groundnut, Pulses, Chilles, Mango and BPH management in Paddy were released by the Guests during the programme. Soil health cards were distributed to the beneficiaries.

In the post lunch session, Principal Scientists and Senior Scientists of RARS, Tirupati and ARS, Perumallapalli interacted with the farmers on production and protection aspects of Cereals, Pulses, oilseeds, Sugarcane, Tomato, Chillies, Mango, weed management and mechanization in major crops in the farmer-scientist interaction programme.

Exhibition stalls were arranged by ten private companies and a distributor of Agricultural machinery. KVK has arranged the exhibition stall with live samples of panicles of Paddy varieties, pest and disease specimens, seed boxes displaying Paddy grains and Rice, Groundnut pods and Kernel, Value added products with Millets, sugarcane varieties, varieties of ragi, sorghum, minor millets etc.