Hyderabad, July 30 :-
A move proposed by the Chief Minister, Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, to increase productivity and improve the income of farmers by implementing cooperative farming, has received good response from the farmers of Raghunathpalli mandal in Ibrahimpur in Warangal district.
Appreciating the novel idea and complimenting the Chief Minister for the bold initiative, the farmers have decided to take up cooperative farming in their village.
In this regard the Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy would visit the Raghunathpalli on Saturday to appreciate the farmers’ move.
Cooperative farming envisages giving farmers the option to pool up their land into a cooperative, a company or a society. They have to transfer their land along with their rights to the new body in return for a share capital. The farmers will have the option to exit any time by selling their share to the members or to the government.
The society/company will carry on agricultural operations, have its own godowns and work with minimum intervention and maximum support of the Government
With the number of agricultural holdings shooting up to 1.2 crore and farm incomes showing no attraction, the Andhra Pradesh Government has proposed to encourage cooperative farming in at least two villages in each district.
The CM said, “We are not going to enforce this on farmers. Only those villages that pass a unanimous resolution in favour of cooperative farming would be picked up.”
The scale would help the farmers focus on agri-allied activities such as piggeries and value-addition to get income from other sources.