Himanshu Shukla, Collector of SPSR Nellore district, attending Collectors Conference.
Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday (December 18) lauded SPSR Nellore District Collector Himanshu Shukla’s concept of ‘Champion Farmers’, calling it an innovative initiative and a good experiment. He congratulated Mr. Himanshu Shukla for designing this programme to directly benefit the farmers by comprehensively connecting all the departments.
On the second day of the Collectors’ Conference held under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister at the Secretariat in Amaravati, Mr. Himanshu Shukla presented the details of the ‘Champion Farmers’ programme, explaining water reserves, crop patterns and the measures taken to increase farmers’ income.
“Champion Farmers programme has been launched with an aim of bringing comprehensive reforms in the agricultural sector of the district. Although the area under cultivation has decreased in the past few years, the situation has changed from 2024. This year, there is 75 TMC of water storage at 100-meter level in Somasila Reservoir.”
“Under these circumstances, the main objective of the ‘Champion Farmers’ programme is to redirect the farmers towards alternative crops. This programme also addresses issues such as shortage of agricultural labourers, lack of farm mechanisation, excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides, lack of market linkages and lack of investment in food processing and value addition,” he said.
One ‘Champion Farmer’ has been identified in each village across 727 panchayats of the district, and he will act as a role model and ambassador for that village, the Collector said, adding that these Champion Farmers will be trained to use the latest agricultural techniques and continuously guided by the local Village Agricultural Assistants (VAAs) for the next couple of years.
The Chief Minister lauded Mr. Himanshu Shukla for designing the programme to efficiently utilise the human resources. He said, “The self-help groups should be formed through ‘Champion Farmers’ or they should be transformed into MSMEs (Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises). There is a need to extend these policies to horticultural crops as well, not just seasonal crops.”
“The purpose of programmes like ‘Rythanna Mee Kosam’ is also to provide ultimate benefit to the farmers,” he said, advising the Collectors of all districts to raise awareness about the government policies for the benefit of the farmers through Rythu Seva Kendra (RSKs) and Swarna Andhra Vision Action Plan Units.
“All measures should be taken to make agricultural mechanisation clusters easily accessible to the farmers as well as to reduce the agricultural costs and maximise their incomes,” the CM suggested.
