By Express News Service
Published: 13th July 2015 06:12 AM
VIJAYAWADA: Krishna district administration is gearing up to implement sale of fertilisers, seeds and pesticides through electronic Point of Sale (ePOS) system on pilot basis at 20 areas in the district. In recent review meeting on Primary Mission, chief minister N Chandrababu Naid had okayed the suggestion to use ePOS for distribution of farm inputs.
Addressing a review meeting here Sunday, district collector Babu A said through ePOS, the real farmers will get the fertilisers, seeds and pesticides in a transparent manner and accountability can be fixed. Further, there will be an effective control over the distribution system.
He said area-wise, details of farmers, their holdings, soil test results, crops under cultivation and other related aspects have been compiled by agriculture department officials. Now, steps need to be taken for creating awareness about the new system among the farmers. Initially, ePOS will be taken up at the Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS), he added.
According to him, distribution of farm inputs through ePOS will be taken up in 420 PACS in the district. Officials were asked to know each and every aspect of ePOS technology and how it has to be implemented for farm inputs distribution. He wanted them to know about the entire setup like where the primary stock point is and in what places the farm inputs from that stock point are being taken to and what is the next distribution network. He wanted them to have the database of seeds, fertilisers and pesticides shops under the purview of respective PACS.
He also wanted the Aadhaar numbers of the customers of those shops, where they are located, extent of the crops being cultivated by them and volume of the fertilizers and pesticides they are using. Officials were also asked to collect the mobile numbers of the farmers along with their Aadhaar numbers and other related data.
All the data collected will be computerised and the same will be available on the ePOS machines, based on which necessary farm inputs can be distributed.
According to Agriculture department deputy director Babu Naik, there are a total of 5.54 lakh people dependent on agriculture and allied sectors. There are 1.13 lakh registered tenant farmers among them and another 2.19 lakh are non-registered tenant farmers.