YSR Congress party president and Andhra chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday scrapped Annadata Sukhibhava scheme, a crop input assistance scheme launched by previous Telugu Desam Party government headed by N Chandrababu Naidu just before elections.
The scheme, which was modelled on the lines of Rythu Bandu scheme of Telangana government, was aimed at providing Rs 10,000 per farmer every year to enable them purchase crop inputs like fertilisers, pesticides and seeds during every cropping season.
Jagan, who held a review meeting with the officials of the agriculture department at his Tadepalli camp office, asked the officials to do away with Naidu’s scheme, which served no purpose. Instead, he wanted them to improve the scheme so that farmers would get better financial assistance.
He announced that the scheme would be relaunched in the name of “YSR Rythu Bharosa” as promised among his Nava Ratnas during his padayatra, with effect from October 15. Under this, each farmer would be paid Rs 12,500 per year towards input cost.
The chief minister also directed that all the inputs required for agriculture including seeds, fertilisers and pesticides be made available at village secretariats to be established in every village from October 2, the Gandhi Jayanti day.
Jagan also announced that a price stabilisation fund with Rs 3,000 crore would be established in order to ensure remunerative price for farmers.