Micro irrigation, ZBNF will be game-changers: Lokesh

ZBNF would go a long way in drastically cutting down production cost and ending the vicious debt cycle of desperate small and marginal farmers, who now felt that farming was unviable, he said.

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP), if voted to power in 2024, will promote zero-based natural farming (ZBNF) to cut cost and revive micro irrigation, which optimises water use, to grow crops, TDP national general secretary Nara Lokesh said on Sunday.

Interacting with a group of farmers at Tegacherla at the undivided SPSR Nellore district on the 130th day of his ‘Yuva Galam‘ padayatra, he said the State stood third in the number of suicides by debt-ridden farmers in the country and second in the number of deaths by tenant farmers. These farmers were unable to break even in the wake of an ever-increasing cost of farm inputs and unremunerative prices for their produce. He said the ‘‘anti-farmer’‘ Jagan Mohan Reddy government failed to keep its promises to farmers.

ZBNF would go a long way in drastically cutting down production cost and ending the vicious debt cycle of desperate small and marginal farmers, who now felt that farming was unviable, he said. Micro-nutrients would also be provided to farmers after mandatory soil testing as was done during the previous TDP regime. Another step to cut down production cost was through the supply of sprinklers and drippers for free to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe farmers. Other sections of farmers would be provided the micro-irrigation system at 90% subsidy.

He also exhorted the farmers to resist the fixing of smart meters on farm pumps by the YSRCP government as it would lead to the dilution of the free-power scheme over a period of time.

Dovetailing with the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, waterbodies in villages would be given a facelift, he promised, before resuming the walkathon. Former State Agriculture Minister Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy and former Union Minister Panabaka Lakshmi accompanied him.

Saying that growers of lemon and mangoes were struggling to save their orchards from pest attacks and price crashes, he promised to set up food processing units and tap the export potential of value-added products. Research centres would be set up to provide scientific expertise to save the orchards, he assured the farmers.

Paddy growers were also not getting a remunerative price as millers ruled the roost, he opined and blamed the Jagan Mohan Reddy government for restricting the investment subsidy to ₹7,500 after promising ₹12,500 to each farmer.