Summary:
Amaravati: It’s the best of times for farmers in the state. On Saturday, the government decided to hike the annual financial assistance to farmers to Rs 15,000, including the Rs 6,000 grant from the Centre.Now, following the recent decision of the state cabinet to increase free power supply to the agriculture sector by two hours from the existing seven, the Southern Power Distribution Company Limited (SPDCL) started the nine-hour power supply from Sunday. The situation in many areas in Guntur, Prakasam and Nellore districts is no different either. Now, the ryots can heave a sigh of relief. With the Rabi season coming to a close, the additional hours of free supply is expected to benefit farmers in a big way.In fact, they have been pumping out extra water through borewells, particularly in Rayalaseema region where there has been no rain in any of the districts in the last three months..