Kochi: The state govt would implement the recommendations of the V K Baby Committee report to protect the paddy farmers from being exploited when they try to sell their produce, state agriculture minister P Prasad said during an interaction with TOI at its office in Kochi on Monday.The report by the committee — set up two years ago to study the issues related to paddy procurement — is presently before a five-member ministerial sub-committee and departments concerned, which are working out the nitty-gritties involved in the procurement and marketing of paddy, he said."Often the farmer is caught between an uncertainty whether he should sell the produce now to get a better price or delay the sale for another day.

It is when some mill agencies push him into a corner with threats. We have already put a rapid response team in place to reach the farmers if they alert us. Our officials will try to resolve the issue immediately. Farmers also suffer cheating at the hands of machine operators during harvest.

The committee has looked at all aspects of procurement," he said.Prasad said the state govt was looking at the larger picture of how agriculture could be done on the Western Ghats as a whole.

"We've the mountain ranges stretching across our state. There is a diversity in soil and cultivability. The govt is planning extensive discussions with various experts and stakeholders on the issue," the minister said.Prasad said smart farming using the internet of things and climate-resilient agriculture practices to get optimum productivity were in the pipeline. Smart farming solutions would be devised for paddy, plantation crops like cardamom and coffee and horticulture crops using technologies like geographic information system (GIS) and AI.Post-harvest marketing of produce is a challenge the state has been facing, he said. "We have already started a secondary agriculture practice. As part of it, 4,000 value-added products made by different farmer groups and certified by respective Krishi Bhavans have been introduced. These products are already sold online under the Keralagro brand through major e-commerce sites. They will also be available in branded shops with the same name in all districts," he said.With safe food a major concern of society, the state govt has already come up with an organic mission to reduce the use of pesticides and fertilizers."We want to introduce natural farming in the state. It will be a sub-mission under the organic mission. Natural farming has been successful in Andhra Pradesh and we have had several rounds of discussions with T Vijay Kumar who led the community-managed natural farming in that state," Prasad said.