Tuesday, Oct 26, 2004
Tuesday, Oct 26, 2004 |
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Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary | Andhra Pradesh
By Our Special Correspondent
HYDERABAD, OCT. 25. The Agriculture Minister, N. Raghuveera Reddy, today announced a number of significant decisions, including changes in the Seed Act, launch of "seed village programme" in 200 Assembly segments, discouraging paddy in rain shadow areas and revival of the Andhra Pradesh Industries Corporation. Addressing a press conference, Mr. Reddy said under the new Seed Bill, which was ready and awaiting Cabinet approval on October 30, the fine on the seed company for the first time offence of supplying spurious seed, has been raised from Rs. 500 to Rs. 10,000. If repeated, the fine would be increased from Rs. 1,000 to Rs. 1 lakh and the supplier would be jailed for six months. These decisions were taken at a meeting where the Chief Minister, Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, reviewed the functioning of the Agriculture Department. Among other changes, the current procedure of self-certification has been modified to certification by the Government's Seed Certification Agency. The initiatives taken by the new Government were yielding results with the seizure of spurious seed worth Rs. 1.29 crores during this kharif, against Rs. 61 lakhs in the previous season, Mr Reddy said. Seed worth Rs. 5 crores was held back on suspicion of being fake this year, against Rs. 8 lakhs worth last year. The compensation paid by seed companies to farmers too has gone up from Rs. 4.29 lakhs to Rs. 2.36 crores. The Minister said a Rs. 4-crore "seed village programme" would be launched during this rabi, covering 200 Assembly constituencies for producing seed for kharif. The seed and fertilizer testing units now confined to five districts would be extended to 17 other districts at a cost of Rs. 25 crores.
Loan disbursals up
The Government has done well in disbursal of crop loans, he said. During the recent kharif, Rs. 7,010 crores was disbursed, as against Rs. 5,105 crores in the last season.
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