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Suresh E's Blogs >> Election Manifestos Kya Huaan Tera Vada !

I managed to dig up the AP Congress election manifesto for the year 2004. Since the congress government was in power for more than 2 consecutive terms, it will be a good exercise to see what the government has delivered so far ( if it did ) and to what extent it did. Prior to the year 2005, this sort of an exercise could never be envisaged. So what happened after 2005……………….RTI happened, tadaaa !!.

Some bold promises made by the congress government ( see the highlighted text below in red ) in it’s manifesto. On paper , the schemes proposed by the government are very powerful and have the potential to change the agricultural sector for ever. Below are some of the highlights in the agricultural sector .

Agriculture:

Agriculture Technology Mission: Will be set up under the chairmanship of the CM to focus on matters connected with
--> improving farm productivity within the current land holding pattern
--> precision farming techniques that aim at adopting good agronomical practices
essentially comprising timeliness of irrigation
--> method of sowing’
--> power water management and utilization.
--> Goal is to increase the levels of rice production and sugarcane from their present 2980 kg/ha and 80 mt/ha to 4000 kg/ha and 110 mt/ha respectively within 3 to 4 years using better agricultural practices, with the available water and without having to depend on additional investments for irrigation.
--> The underlying strategy is to improve productivity levels by at least 40 to 50% so as to ensure that the surplus labor in agriculture, arising out of improved productivity levels, will be migrating to horticulture and non-farming sector.
--> Micro Irrigation Projects to be further strengthened to cover 5.05 lakh ha in the next five years.
--> Imparting dry land farming techniques and crop migration.
--> A separate Horticulture Board will be set up to ensure imparting of Post Harvesting Technology to the farmers
--> Create value and supply chain by implementing a chain of fruit and vegetable processing units.
their by increasing the incomes in this sector.
--> Ensure quality seeds and pesticides are provided to farmers
--> Closely monitoring the flow of credit from commercial banks and co-operative societies to the agricultural sector.
--> Subsidized interest on crop loans to farm sector by 6% so as to ensure an interest rate not being more than 3% to the farmers.
--> Provide comprehensive crop insurance to the farmers.
--> Waiver of electricity dues
--> Interest subsidies
--> provision of one time settlement for agricultural loans with co-operative bodies etc.
--> Free power to farmers.
--> Set up “Shramik Banks”, the branches of the bank will operate in the rural areas.
--> In the unlikely event of the land owner, who uses the services of the labor, is unable to make the payments immediately, for lack of liquidity, the Shramik Banks will make the payments of wages to the labor
--> Step into their shoes for recovering the said dues from the land owner at a later date when the land owners sells his agriculture produce.

Irrigation:

Make considerable budgetary allocations will be made for “Water Harvesting Projects“.
Original Source of the 2004 AP congress manifesto : http://66.28.216.162:8080/apcc/English.pdf