Telangana’s new agriculture policy will tell farmers what to grow

Naveen S Garewal

Tribune News Service

Hyderabad, May 10

Telangana proposes to actively overtake the process of guiding and helping farmers in the state grow what is required on the basis of demand so that there is no delay in sale of the produce.

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) has asked senior officials to prepare a comprehensive agriculture policy to make agriculture profitable.

The policy will be finalised after the chief minister gets inputs from farmers through clusters and groups such as Rythu Bandhu Samithis. “The government should decide on which crops the farmers should cultivate. Planning should be done in such a way that crops should be cultivated based on the food needs of people in the state and the crops, which are in demand in the markets in other regions,” Rao said.

To improve the lot of the farmers in the state, where agriculture is a major occupation, the chief minister said the state should play a pro-active role in suggesting alternative crops to farmers, so that they get better support price and there is no glut in the mandis.

In a meeting with department officials late Saturday night, the chief minister said, “The Agriculture department should prepare an inventory and record details on the assets, buildings of the department and other such relevant information.”

“Collect proper information from farmers in a format. Very soon I will discuss about the comprehensive agriculture policy through a videoconference,” Rao said.

Agriculture Minister Niranjan Reddy, Civil Supplies Minister Gangula Kamalakar, were among those who attended the meeting. The new agriculture policy will be put in place soon as Telangana is fast becoming a major food producer in the country.