Eluru: District collector K Vetriselvi has directed the agricultural officers to increase the area under organic farming in the district. On Thursday, she conducted a whirlwind tour in Dwaraka Tirumala, Gundugolanu Kunta, Suryachandra Rao Peta and other villages in Dwaraka Tirumala mandal and inspected the farming methods of agriculture and allied sectors. She started with inspection of the farm ponds in Dwaraka Tirumala.
Later, the collector visited Sri Subrahmanyeshwara Organic Farming Resource Centre in Gundugolanu Kunta village and inspected the vegetables and fruit gardens being cultivated with organic farming in the natural farming field of model farmer Obilisetty Gopalakrishnamurthy.
The collector enquired about the organic materials like Panchagavya used for cultivation from farmer Gopalakrishnamurthy. On this occasion, Collector Vetriselvi said that people are prone to diseases due to the use of chemical fertilizers, and that the yield of crops grown through natural farming using organic fertilizers has the potential to increase people’s health and lifespan. She said that the target of cultivating crops through natural farming should be increased by another 10,000 acres in the district this year. Central and state governments are encouraging farmers practicing natural farming.
The agricultural authorities should take steps to ensure that farmers take advantage of them and practice natural farming in more areas. The paddy and horticultural products cultivated through natural farming are getting good prices, and the authorities should take special care to provide more marketing facilities for them.
The collector congratulated Gopalakrishnamurthy saying that it is a great thing to cultivate 25 types of vegetables and fruit products in just half an acre of land using organic fertilizers like Panchagavya, prepare organic fertilizers, and provide training to other farmers on natural farming. Later, the cultivation of coconut, yam, banana and pepper was inspected at Balusu Veerabhadraiah Kshetra in Suryachandra Rao Pet.
The collector congratulated the farmer for growing cocoa as an intercrop with banana. She said that the cocoa farmers should not worry and that the government has taken steps to purchase the entire cocoa crop from the farmers at Rs 500 per kg of cocoa. Later, the Collector along with the officials sowed fodder seeds in the field.
The collector was accompanied by Jangareddygudem RDO Ramana, Agriculture Department Joint Director Habib Bhasha, DWMA PD Subba Rao, Horticulture Department DD Rammohan, Micro Irrigation Project Director Ravikumar, Natural Agriculture District Project Manager Venkatesh, Tahsildar Subba Rao, MPDO Prakash, and others.
