Express News Service By

GUNTUR: Agriculture minister Prathipati Pulla Rao appealed to the farmers to avoid using Monsanto BT Cotton seeds.

Speaking to mediapersons, here on Sunday, he said farmers using the Monsanto BT cotton seeds are incurring losses as the crop is highly prone to diseases. He also appealed to the Central government to take action against the management of Mansanto for supplying defective seeds.

Reiterating that the government is giving priority for agriculture sector, he said a 50 per cent subsidy is being given to farmers of Rayalaseema region to purchase seeds from the agriculture department besides a subsidy of Rs. 1.93 lakh on purchase of a tractor against the earlier subsidy of Rs. 1 lakh.

Responding to the SC categorisation issue, he said that the media misquoted his statements and caused outrage among certain sections of the society. Maintaining that the government is committed to categorisation of SCs, he said Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu will shortly take a decision over the issue.