Agricultural authorities have taken up measures to ensure proper supply of seeds and fertilisers following a recent directive from the Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, in both East and West Godavari districts. In East Godavari, paddy is expected to be raised in about 2.42 lakh hectares for the kharif. With the arrival of an early monsoon and resultant rainfall, farmers have started preparing the ground for taking up cultivation. A section of farmers have already started raising paddy nurseries, and by mid-July, transplantation will be taken up. In order to meet the initial requirement of fertiliser varieties like urea, potassium, DAP and others, the authorities have started mobilising these from dealers. They are identifying fertiliser requirements from the mandals and directing supplies wherever there is requirement to avoid shortage. Similarly, for seed supplies, the authorities are making arrangements to ensure the best varieties of seeds to be supplied to farmers. Nearly 88,000 quintals of seeds have already been supplied in the district so far. Authorities maintain that through their seed village programme, they educated farmers to preserve the best varieties of seeds from their own fields. The district has an allocation of nearly Rs 3 crore towards mechanisation of agriculture. In West Godavari, paddy is raised over about 2.45 lakh hectare for the kharif and agriculture authorities maintain that out of the requirement of 23,000 MT of fertilisers by June end, they have already supplied nearly 45,000 MT of fertilisers so far. Efforts are on to identify mandals having shortage of fertilisers in order to send supplies to such mandals. With regard to seeds, 6,000 quintals of Swarna variety seeds were given to farmers.