Amaravati: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has said the state government will set up multi purpose facility centers including agricultural marketing and food processing under RBKs across the State with an estimated budget of Rs 10,235 crore.

During a review meeting on Dr YSR RBKs, Agricultural Marketing, Food Processing and Amul project held here on Thursday, the Chief Minister siad the construction of multi purpose facility centers should start in March 2021 and would be completed within a year.The facilities include Warehouses, Drying Platform, Collection Centers, Cold Rooms for Storage, Custom Hiring Centers, Primary Processing Centers, Assaying Equipment, Janata Bazaars, Bulk Milk Cooling Units, Cattle sheds and aqua infra in select Villages, Procurement Centers and e-marketing.

The Chief Minister said it's very important to provide quality inputs to farmers on time. He siad the farmer should be informed when seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and the like will be delivered as soon as they are ordered and it should be displayed in RBKs as well.

The Chief Minister said quality Aqua feed and Aqua seed should be provided through RBKs. The labs to be established at constituency level to determine the quality of feed and seeds should be linked with RBKs.The products of organic and natural farming methods should be brought under RBKs and they should be well publicised. Manufacturing units of bio pesticides and bio fertilizers should be encouraged at village level.

The Chief Minister said "From Seed to Sale" should be the motto of RBKs and they should support farmers in all activities ranging form sowing seeds to selling the crop. He siad Agriculture University should prepare an action plan for the effective functioning of RBKs and also on the activites of RBKs to be categorised and a curriculum should be prepared on marketing, before harvest and after harvest of the crop. The Chief Minister said to focus on completing the construction of Rytu Bazaars in fixed timeline.

The Chief Minister said Nadu - Nedu scheme should be implemented in Market Yards and the proposals were laid with Rs 212 crore budget. He directed the officials to prepare proposals for the modernization of all Rytu Bazaars across the state.

The Officials said an additional 125 Urban RBKs would be setup along with 10,641 RBKs and the vehicles count in RBK hubs has been increased to 154 from existing 65. They said 147 constituency level integrated labs will start functioning from March 31and added that 13 district level integrated agri labs will be set up by June 30.

Agriculture Minister Kurasala Kannababu, Agriculture Special Chief Secretary Poonam Malakondaiah, Zero Budget Natural Farming Advisor and Vice Chairman T Vijayakumar, Agriculture Commissioner Arun Kumar, Special Commissioner for Marketing PS Pradyumna, Horticulture Commissioner Chiranjeevi Chowdary, AP Dairy Development Cooperative Federation MD Babu.A, AP AGROS MD Srikesh Balajirao, Civil Supplies Corporation MD A. Suryakumari and other senior officials were present.