Agriculture Minister Kurasala Kannababu on Sunday said that 61 Integrated Agriculture Laboratories (IAL) would be opened in the first phase on July 8 across the State. All of them would be integrated with aqua laboratories.
Mr. Kannababu laid the foundation stone for the IAL-Kakinada at Vakalapudi. It would be built at a cost of ₹82 lakh.
Addressing officials and farmers here, Mr. Kannababu said: “The IALs will ensure the quality of seeds before supplying them to farmers. The laboratories are also being designed to offer multi-purpose services including those required for aquaculture and diagnosis of cattle diseases.”
“The State government has prepared a Detailed Project Report to spend ₹15,000 crore for improvement of infrastructure facilities in rural areas, creating additional godown space and cold storage facilities,” said Mr. Kannababu.
The Minister said that the State government had decided to set up three training centres on agriculture machinery at Naira (Srikakulam district), Samarlakota (East Godavari district) and Kurnool.
Milk chilling centres
On the Amul-Andhra Pradesh State dairy project, Mr. Kannababu said 9,998 bulk milk chilling centres would be constructed across the State.
Joint Director (Agriculture) N. Vijaya Kumar, Joint Director (Fisheries) P.V. Satyanarayana and Deputy Director (Animal Husbandry) S. Madhava Rao were among those present.
