Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao announced that the government will implement short-term and long-term strategies in future to enable agriculture come of age.
The cultivation of crops in Telangana should be done in such a way that it would be in tune with the changing food habits of people, provide raw material to the agro-based industries, ensure entire crops would get sold and the sector would be in a position to compete with the world. In the coming days, the agriculture in the State should undergo a sea change, he said.
Chief Minister held a meeting with experts at Pragathi Bhavan here on Friday to finalise the strategy for cultivation of crops, agri-business and food processing, in accordance with the people’s requirements and market demand.
Former MLC Nageshwar, PJTS Agriculture University Vice Chancellor Praveen Rao, Agri Business College Principal Seema, ASCI Director Srinivasachari, Food and Agriculture Management advisor Gopinath K., Managing Director of the TS Seed Development Corporation Keshavulu and others attended the meeting.
Necessary changes
The meeting discussed changes that needed to be brought in cultivation of crops, how to increase the productivity, how to do value addition to the farmers’ produce before sending it to the market and what are the methods available now and what new changes should be introduced and how to make agricultural produce withstand global competition and what changes should be brought in use of fertilizers and chemicals etc.
The experts gave various suggestions and it was decided that more such meetings be held in future to provide a new direction and guidance to Telangana agriculture.
The Chief Minister said that when the State was formed agriculture was in a crisis and it got some relief due to various measures taken by the government and farmers were slowly regaining confidence. Reforms in agriculture would begin with the ensuing vaanakalam and farmers have trust that government would take measures only for their benefit. “We have farmers with expertise and land to cultivate any type of crop. When there are so many favourable factors, development in agriculture, agri-business, agri industry should be of international standards,” he said.
Quick to change
Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao said that efforts should be made to attract agro-based industries to the State and as a result industry and service sectors would expand. Every year situation would change for agriculture world-wide and accordingly crops should be changed instantly. Thus farmers in the State should get attuned to changing crop patterns and it would give greater yield and land fertility would improve. All these factors should be explained to the farmers in detail, he said.
He also said that change should be brought in the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. At present farmers have no awareness and they were solely going by the word of traders. The benefits of using fertilizers and pesticides in right quantities should be explained to the farmers.
Crop colonies
The agro industry/food processing units should be established in the vicinity of crop colonies, he said.
The meeting was attended by Agriculture Minister S. Niranjan Reddy, Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, Agriculture Principal Secretary Janardhan Reddy, Rythu Bandhu Samithi State president Palla Rajeswar Reddy and others.
