Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao said that the Telangana State is fast emerging as the Agriculture based state and in tune with this, the agriculture department also should strengthen itself. The CM instructed that the Agriculture Department should create two more divisions in the department and an IAS officer should head each division. The CM wanted setting up of purchasing centres in the villages to purchase the rainy season’s agriculture produce.
The CM held a review meeting on Agriculture at Pragathi Bhavan here on Friday. Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy, Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, Principal Secretaries Janardhan Reddy, Narsing Rao,Ramakrishna Rao, Civil Supplies Corporation Chairman Mareddy Srinivas Reddy, Agriculture University VC Praveen Rao, marketing Director MS Lakshmibai, Civil Supplies Commissioner Anil Kumar, SPDCL CMD Raghuma Reddy, Water resources Department E-in-C Muralidhar Rao, AD Vijayakumar and others participated.
“60 per cent of population in Telangana state is dependent on agriculture. If agriculture sector is good, the state and its people are good. The state government has no other subject on top of its agenda other than agriculture. A revolutionary changes were brought in the farm sector in the state with construction of major irrigation projects, revival of tanks through Mission Kakatiya, 24-hour uninterrupted free power supply to the agriculture, Rythu Bandhu, Rythu Bhima, creation of Clusters, supply of quality seeds, fertilisers and pesticides on time. The entire map of agriculture changed after formation of the Telangana state when compared to the situation under the united AP. Telangana State became the highest Paddy producing state in the country. A lot of progress is made in other crops too. The farm sector will develop more in future too. Farmers are getting good price for their agriculture produce due to Regulatory Farming Policy. With this background, agriculture sector is a very important sector in the State. Responsibilities of the agriculture department are also on the increase. In tune with this, changes should be brought in the department,” the CM said.
“We have to create two new wings in the agriculture department. One wing should take care of water for Irrigation, power, fertiliser and seeds and other basic infrastructure activity. It should coordinate with the departments concerned. The second wing should focus on marketing. It should study on which crops have demand in the country, in the world and which crop would get profits to farmers? It should prepare strategies in coordination with Marketing and Civil supplies departments to get better price for farmers. IAS officers should head both these wings,” the CM said.
“Due to construction of Kaleswaram project on Godavari River and other projects, 24 districts have become fertile. They will not have any problem with regard to irrigation water. Under the Godavari projects, Adilabad, Nirmal, Asifabad, Mancherial, Nizamabad, Kamareddy, Medak, Siddipet, Sangareddy, Karimnagar, Jagtial, Pedapalli, Sircilla, Warangal Urban, Warangal Rural, Mahabubabad, Mulugu, Bhoopalpally, Jangaon, Bhongir, Suryapet, Khammam, Bhadradri Kothagudem, Medchel districts are covered. On the projects constructed on Krishna River, united Mahboobnagar, Rangareddy, Nalgonda district will also become fertile. However, water from all the projects will not come at one time. There will small changes in getting the irrigation water based on when the projects are filled with water. Based on this, seeds and fertilisers should be kept ready. Make arrangements for the purchase of agriculture produce,” the CM suggested.
“Farmers in the state are habituated to cultivate certain crops. This method should change. Farmers should cultivate crops, which have demand in the markets. We have come with a Regulatory farming policy precisely for this. There is a need to increase the extent of cultivation of other crops along with Paddy and Cotton. Redgram cultivation in the state should be extended to 20 to 25 Lakh acres. Oil Palm should be cultivated in 12 Lakh acres, Red Chilli, Turmeric, Pulses and vegetables in 15 Lakh acres. The officers should advise the farmers on which crops should be cultivated based on availability of water, nature of the soil and weather conditions,” the CM said.