YSRs IT plan for farmers hits Andhra wall

Six software engineers who invested their own money to take agriculture research to farmers through information and communication technology find themselves in a spot....

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Six software engineers who invested their own money to take agriculture research to farmers through information and communication technology find themselves in a spot because the Andhra Pradesh government has reneged on its promise to fund the project.

The pilot project it-rural.com,which was praised by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) as a remarkable venture,enabled 40,000 farmers in Pulivendula mandal of Kadapa district to use latest agricultural practices which helped them increase earnings. The home district of the late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy,Kadapa is now the turf of his son and MP Jagan Mohan Reddy who,with his aspirations for the CMs job,has been giving the Congress sleepless nights.

As CM,YSR had asked the engineers to take the project to all of Kadapa and later to other districts. He sanctioned funds under the Centres Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana which encourages innovative projects. Since YSRs death,the team has been trying to procure funds without success.

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Agriculture Departments Special Chief Secretary Racheal Chatterjee said: We thought the IT Department should handle it. So we transferred the project there. I dont know what happened after.

Under the project,each farmer was given advice on the latest agricultural practices based on the size of his land,soil quality of the field and suitable crops to be sown,and the quality of seeds to be used. The project created a database of all farmers in Pulivendula,the composition of soil in each field,earlier crops,diseases,water quality,seeds and fertilisers used.

During the first phase of the project,farmers not only increased their earnings but due to the good quality of the crops,received orders from Singapore for supply of sweet lime and pomegranates,while several retail outlets placed orders for other harvests.

For four years,we walked hundreds of miles through the mandal. Since it was our pilot project,we had no salaries. We spent over Rs 10 lakh of our own money to sustain the project as well as ourselves, said Tamil Nadu-based Thiruchelvam Ramakrishnan who initiated the project.

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The project took off in 2006 and the team mapped 20,000 acres of agricultural land owned by 40,000 farmers in 30 villages under 12 panchayats of Pulivendula mandal.

As the project was being tested in Pulivendula,YSR took a keen interest and asked the team to submit a proposal to receive funding of Rs 2.7 crore under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana to take it to the next level. The project was approved by the state-level committee for agriculture,and the state-level sanctioning committee okayed the funding of the project. But from here on,the entire project got caught in a bureaucratic tangle and the file was transferred through many departments.

When we got a chance,we told YSR who demanded answers from officers of the departments through which the file had passed. He was told that since the state share of Rs 920 crore under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana had been cut down to Rs 300 crore,funds could not be allocated for this project. A week before his death,YSR called us and said he was putting the project on hold temporarily till he could arrange funds from some other source. Till now we have made presentations and got clearances from three Chief Secretaries,three Principal Secretaries of Agriculture,and three Commissioners of Agriculture,but the file hasnt moved, said Thiruchelvam.