To meet agriculture experts at Iowa State University Seed Park in the US, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, N Chandrababu Naidu, skipped Diwali celebrations this year. With agriculture as the prime focus, Naidu concluded the US leg of his three-nation tour on October 20.
The newly formed Andhra Pradesh is an agrarian state where approximately 62% or 46 lakh families are dependent on agriculture and the government has initiated a slew of programmes to boost up the sector. In the first quarter of the current fiscal, the state has clocked in a growth rate of nearly 27% in agriculture.
Naidu said, "we will make use of advanced technologies to turn agriculture profitable in the state. There are lot of experiments being done in farming across the globe.
"There is a need to study them and tune accordingly and adopt for our farmer's benefit. Through technology, we will conduct soil tests and rightly guide farmers on the crop. We saved lakhs of acres of crop by inter-linking of rivers which is a first in the country", he added.
In adopting state-of-the-art agrarian practices, the state government has partnered with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, World Economic Forum, World Food Prize and Iowa State University. Modernising agriculture is one of the tasks that Andhra Pradesh faces.
An international agriculture summit in Visakhapatnam organise next month by the Chandrababu Naidu-led state government and which Microsoft Founder Bill Gates is scheduled to attend.
Naidu said, "Government's primary focus is on accelerating agricultural growth, farmers' welfare is also being ensured. We are making efforts to transform Andhra Pradesh into a knowledge-based economy, with an expansion of horticulture by following efficient cropping practices. The government believes that agricultural growth is only possible by combining advanced technology with effective policies.
He also said, "to make Andhra Pradesh the most advanced agricultural state in the country is the government's aim."
Source:http://www.business-standard.com/
