HYDERABAD: Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy has given the green signal to the Agriculture Department's proposal to reorient the farm sector in the State by building a network of 50,000 farmer scientists in the next three years.

He gave his approval after Agriculture Commissioner Poonam Malakondaiah made a presentation on Sunday in the presence of Principal Secretary, Agriculture, C.V.S.K. Sharma, according to a press release from the Chief Minister's Office.

For building the network, "polam badi" farmer facilitators will be selected from among those who have passed SSC.

They will be trained at "polam badi" for two seasons. The facilitators should have passed the "polam badi" test, have communication skills and be below 40 years of age. Farmer scientists should have been "polam badi" facilitators for two seasons.

Training

The farmer scientists will be trained in production, post-harvest, marketing technologies, water management, WTO issues and animal husbandry.

They will be federated crop-wise for better marketing facilitation as equal partners with traders' retail outlets and contract farming with legal training.

There will be two farmer scientists in every panchayat, at least 30 per cent of them women.

Farmer training centres will be the nodal agencies for capacity building and evaluation.

Contact classes

The farmer scientists will also have contact classes with research institutes and Karshak Vignana Kendras. Armed with water test and other kits and a mobile farm library, they will man the agrinet kiosk centre and undertake study tours once a year.

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