Monthly Archives: January 2016
12
After honey, it’s cashew’s turn to go organic
A.P. tribals to get loans and help to grow the crop in big way.
The Girijan Co-operative Corporation (GCC), leader in marketing organic honey, is now venturing into organic cashew with the support of the Integrated Tribal Development Corporation (ITDA), Rampachodavaram, in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh.
K.V. Chakradhar Babu, who took charge as Project Officer of ITDA, gathered statistics on cashew farming in the agency area. Cashew farming is the major source of income in the region. He also met tribal farmers during Sunday shandies.
The ITDA is making efforts to set up Organic Agriculture Producers’ Societies at the village level and develop them like Dwacra groups at the mandal level.
Payments will be made in bio-metric system and technological partners will be set up.
Loans will be sanctioned by the GCC and ITDA will also extend support for to societies.
“Farmers can store their produce in godowns. Purchasing centres will be set up in villages apart from existing sales points. Tribal farmers can make use of organic certificates to avoid problems in transporting products from procurement centres to clusters,” said Mr. Babu.
MoU signed
The GCC has signed an MoU with the Kerala-based Olam Company, which will give organic certificates to tribals and it will pay a premium of Rs.2 per each kg of organic product for the farmers who are having the certificate.
Mr. Babu said cashew crop was cultivated by tribals in Rampachodavaram on about 40,000 acres and they were not getting profitable price owing to lack of proper marketing. In 4-5 mandals the cashew cultivation was high.
Initially, area would be earmarked for cultivating 10,000 tonnes of organic cashew.
Businessmen’s view
However, businessmen are differing with the idea of ‘organic cashew’.
“We support the idea of eliminating middlemen between tribals and industries. However, there is no such thing called organic or inorganic in cashew as cashew gardens will not need more pesticides. Organic tag is only to create brand image,” said Appareddy, a businessman at Rajanagaram in the Rajahmundry rural area.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Andhra Pradesh / by B.V.S. Bhaskar / Rampachodavaram (A.P.) / January 11th, 2016
Telugu man to lead Indian blind cricket team
In a rare honour for a Telugu cricketer, Illuri Ajay Kumar Reddy has been given the honour of leading Indian Blind cricket team in the Asia Cup T-20 cricket championship to be held in Kochi from January 17 to 24.
The 25-year-old has already made a mark in this form of cricket featuring in 10 ODIs and 16 T-20s for India with a career-high point of being vice-captain of the national team which won the T-20 World Cup in 2012 in Bengaluru.
For the record, Ajay Kumar was also a member of the Indian blind cricket team that won the fourth ODI World Cup, first for India for the blind in South Africa in 2014. Incidentally, he was also the ‘player of the series’ in the T-20 World Championship.
This gifted cricketer was born in Gurzala in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh and currently working with the State Bank of Hyderabad in Nagarjunasagar after graduating from Nizam College in Telugu literature. “I am confident that this Indian team will lift the first Asia Cup for blind,” Ajay Kumar informed The Hindu.
This right-handed fast bowler and top-order batsman has an enviable record in T-20 cricket scoring 676 runs in 11 innings besides taking 27 wickets in 15 innings.
Ajay Kumar is one of the main stays of the Indian team having made his ODI debut in 2010 and the T-20 in 2012 with a terrific record of three ‘man of the series’ awards so far in all three formats.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Andhra Pradesh / by T. Karnakar Reddy / Nalgonda – January 07th, 2016