FARMER-FRIENDLY: District Collector Dasari Kadmial speaking at a training programme for agriculture facilitators at Anantapur on Friday.

ANANTAPUR: District Collector Dasari Kadmial has asked field officers of the Agriculture Department to act as brethren of the farming community instead of officers, visit the fields, give suggestions at right time and help them improve their income.

Speaking at the inauguration of season-long training programme for facilitators (TOF) in groundnut with redgram here on Friday, the Collector asked officials to inculcate intricacies in the cultivation of groundnut and other crops and thus help farmers overcome the problems. He said field officers of the Agriculture Department should act as guides.

In distress

He explained that the farmers in the district, who cultivate groundnut in more than 80 per cent of the lands, were suffering losses regularly due to increasing investment and decreasing returns coupled with vagaries of nature. The help extended by the Government in the form of subsidy on seed, crop insurance and crop loss compensation (input subsidy) was coping with the losses suffered by farmers.

The field officers should create awareness among the farming community towards self-sustenance and educate them to taken up alternative crops and inter crops. Further, they should encourage the farmers to use organic fertilisers and reduce the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides, the Collector said.

He told them to educate the farmers on the red-hairy caterpillar from now itself. They should regularly guide the farmers as to which pest would attack in which stage of the crop and how the crop would be protected from them.

The Collector reminded the agriculture officials that it was their responsibility to take the results of research in the laboratories to the field.

Joint Director of Agriculture P. Pothaiah said `Polambadi' programme was being implemented in 126 villages in the district.

Groundnut sowing

Coordinator of Eruvaka Agriculture Extension Centre Laxmi Reddy said groundnut should be sown in July in the district to get good yield and the extent of coverage should be reduced in case the sowing was forced to August.

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