Agri-extension officers to help ryots in use of pesticides

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Champanioning a cause :Ministers Pocharam Srinivas Reddy and Jogu Ramanna attending the World Environment Day celebrations in Hyderabad on Sunday.- Photo: G. Ramakrishna

Once the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) completes the process of recruitment of 2,000-odd agriculture extension officers, they will decide on the kind and quantum of pesticides necessary for farmers and not the shopkeepers, said Agriculture Minister P. Srinivas Reddy here on Sunday.
In the absence of extension officers, farmers were forced to depend on shopkeepers for everything and the latter were dumping “unsold” stocks on farmers, the Minister said. “There has been a delay of six months in recruitment due to a course case, but now that the exam has been held, the extension officers will soon be in service,” he said.
“We will have these officers at every mandal and an assistant director at the district level. Only when extension officers sign the requisition based on farmers’ and crop needs, pesticides will be supplied,” he said, deploring the tendency of overuse of pesticides leading to ill-health among people. He also attributed the rise of cancer cases to indiscriminate use of pesticides and said the government was encouraging organic farming extensively.
Mr. Reddy was addressing a gathering at the launch of Telangana Jala Samrakshana Vedika by TRS founding member V. Prakash, water harvesting & recycling expert Ayyappa Masagi and Ch. Ravindra Kumar of ‘Freedom’, a voluntary body involved in de-silting of tanks and development of minor irrigation tanks.
To commemorate the World Environment Day, a brochure explaining the activities of the organisation ( savewater2021@gmail.com , www.deccanwater.com ) was unveiled in the presence of Environment and Forest Minister J. Ramanna, Rural Development Minister J. Krishna Rao, Mayor B. Rammohan, TS Planning Board Vice-Chairman S. Niranjan Reddy, Chevella MP K. Vishveshwar Reddy and others.
“Efficient use of water is as important as harvesting water,” said Mr. Srinivas Reddy and lamented that despite the government spending thousands of crores of rupees on water conservation, the results were not as desired. He wanted the government engineering machinery to ruminate on the methods used to build check dams and other structures to arrest flowing water for better efficiency.
His ministerial colleague Mr. Krishna Rao called for a change in water usage itself. Hailing the work done by Mr. Masagi in Karnataka and AP, the Ministers said his services would be utilised in Telangana too.

Source : The Hindu