Making agriculture viable in kadapa district ----01
The other day when I was discussing with my father about the state of agriculture and the problem faced by him as a farmer, he told me some of the challenge. the major problem i have understood broadly include following
i) Irregular monsoon and lack of availability of water in our region(i.e,, Rayalaseema region). The situation is so bad that in some areas people have dig bore wells up-to 400-450 feet to get water and the situation is worse in summer.
ii) Increase in cost of investment. Cost of seeds, fertilizers, pesticides,manual labor and machinery cost at the time of harvest.
iii) Lack of storage facilities that is cold storage and warehouses.Because of this people are selling the produce to middle men on the spot of harvest or selling the produce at the distress rate.
iv)lack of proper connectivity to big markets. In case of our region the density of railway network is very less which reduce the scope of exporting the produce.
Food packaging industry
Rayalaseema region is facing the problem of water scarcity. It could not afford to have a food processing unit because of water intensity nature of food processing units. Rather we should increase cheap transport facility such as railways to the water sufficient region of Andhra Pradesh such as Krishna,Gunture and Godavari districts. where we should encourage cluster based food processing units.
At the same time we can develop grading and packing industries in Rayalaseema region which requires less water availability. After Grading and packing these units can be exported to various parts of the country and even to abroad. For this also strong railway connectivity to the major ports in the country is the need of the hour.Recently Fruit train which started in the ANANTAPUR district from tadipatri railway station to Mumbai port is the step in the right direction.
to increase the market for flowers and other perishables horticultural crops. we should utilize the air cargo services. AS the increase in penetration of air services in each districts we can think of exporting the products through air.
Argicultural crop data book:
It is natural scenario one can observe in the rural areas that if a particular crop got bumper price in one year then the next year the crop will be grown in huge amount. Because of over production the price of the crop will reduce drastically which makes the farmer to sell the product at distress rate.As far as my opinion the major fault here is lack of proper data and planning. I feel the following plan can address this problem.
with the help of agricultural assistant in the grama secretariat we should collect the data of the crops which the farmers intend to grow in their fields for the coming season. with this advanced estimates we should create a district, regional and state wide agricultural crop data book.at the same time we should share this information with the farmers about how many people are intend to grow the same crop which he thinks to grow. we have to educate the famer with the help agriculture assistant about how much that particular crop was grown last year and it's productivity in different regions. what was the price of the crop last year and how it going to fluctuate because of this year data.
After this exercise the farmer will get clarity whether he should grow it or not. If he intends to change the crop then we should share information about best available alternatives to the farmer which suites for that locality.
i) Irregular monsoon and lack of availability of water in our region(i.e,, Rayalaseema region). The situation is so bad that in some areas people have dig bore wells up-to 400-450 feet to get water and the situation is worse in summer.
ii) Increase in cost of investment. Cost of seeds, fertilizers, pesticides,manual labor and machinery cost at the time of harvest.
iii) Lack of storage facilities that is cold storage and warehouses.Because of this people are selling the produce to middle men on the spot of harvest or selling the produce at the distress rate.
iv)lack of proper connectivity to big markets. In case of our region the density of railway network is very less which reduce the scope of exporting the produce.
Food packaging industry
Rayalaseema region is facing the problem of water scarcity. It could not afford to have a food processing unit because of water intensity nature of food processing units. Rather we should increase cheap transport facility such as railways to the water sufficient region of Andhra Pradesh such as Krishna,Gunture and Godavari districts. where we should encourage cluster based food processing units.
At the same time we can develop grading and packing industries in Rayalaseema region which requires less water availability. After Grading and packing these units can be exported to various parts of the country and even to abroad. For this also strong railway connectivity to the major ports in the country is the need of the hour.Recently Fruit train which started in the ANANTAPUR district from tadipatri railway station to Mumbai port is the step in the right direction.
to increase the market for flowers and other perishables horticultural crops. we should utilize the air cargo services. AS the increase in penetration of air services in each districts we can think of exporting the products through air.
Argicultural crop data book:
It is natural scenario one can observe in the rural areas that if a particular crop got bumper price in one year then the next year the crop will be grown in huge amount. Because of over production the price of the crop will reduce drastically which makes the farmer to sell the product at distress rate.As far as my opinion the major fault here is lack of proper data and planning. I feel the following plan can address this problem.
with the help of agricultural assistant in the grama secretariat we should collect the data of the crops which the farmers intend to grow in their fields for the coming season. with this advanced estimates we should create a district, regional and state wide agricultural crop data book.at the same time we should share this information with the farmers about how many people are intend to grow the same crop which he thinks to grow. we have to educate the famer with the help agriculture assistant about how much that particular crop was grown last year and it's productivity in different regions. what was the price of the crop last year and how it going to fluctuate because of this year data.
After this exercise the farmer will get clarity whether he should grow it or not. If he intends to change the crop then we should share information about best available alternatives to the farmer which suites for that locality.
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