Govt giving priority to agriculture: Reddy

Hyderabad, Sep 26 (UNI) Andhra Pradesh Agriculture Minister N Raghuveera Reddy today said the State Government was according utmost priority to the agriculture sector with a view to increasing the agricultural production.

Addressing members of the Seedsmen Association at its 13th Annual General Meeting here, he said with the efforts of the government and the Seed Industry the state was able to secure third position from the sixth spot in agricultural production.

Urging the Seedsmen Association to strive hard to provide good varieties of seeds to farmers and help the state in achieving the number one position in the country in agricultural production, he said the State had received the best performance award in agriculture from Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee recently.

State Rural Development Minister G Chinna Reddy underlined the need to improve the Research and Development facilities to develop new seed varieties for the benefit of farmers.

Stating that the Seed Industry in the country was developing very fast, he asked them to provide quality seeds to the farmers to improve the production and also to enhance the economic conditions of the farmers.

The area of cotton cultivation this year had increased to 13 lakh hectares from the present ten lakh hectares due to good cotton seeds available in the state, he said and urged Agriculture Minister to improve the marketing facilities as the farmers were expecting good cotton yield this year.

Seedsmen Association President G V Bhaskara Rao said the seed industry was making continuous efforts to produce quality seeds to meet the requirements of the state and other states as per the demand.

The Seedsmen Association had 362 seed producing companies as its members, he said adding nearly 47 lakh quintals of certified seeds were produced in the state during 2007-08 as against 41 lakh quintals during 2006-07.

UNI BR VA ROY MP GC1730