Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar says govt keen to promote agriculture start-ups

Adarsh Nagar: Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar on Monday presided over a meeting at BRKR Bhavan where six start-up companies presented their solutions for the agriculture sector. The Telangana State has made rapid strides in the field of Agriculture. The area of cultivation has increased from 1.31 crore acres to 2.11 crore acres. Telangana has the highest areas of paddy in the entire country extending to 51 Lakh acres in Rabi season, he noted. The State government has been taking various measures for improving agriculture. In this context, the agri-tech start-ups will play a key role in the development of agriculture in the State. The government itself can become a partner, consumer and first customer of the start-ups. The Chief Secretary wanted the start-ups to make use of the resources available with the agriculture department and come out with specific proposals which would provide end to end solutions in the farm sector and would be beneficial to the farmers in the State.

The Chief Secretary said that with a view to encourage agriculture based tech start-ups in the state, the government has started this initiative to identify start-ups and to give further opportunities so as to bring a digital transformation in the rural ecosystem. There are plenty of opportunities for the start-ups to collaborate with the government, he added.

Principal Secretary Jayesh Ranjan, Agriculture Secretary B Janardhan Reddy, Agriculture University Vice Chancellor Dr Praveen Rao, Agri Hub PJTSAU CEO Kalpana Sastry and representatives of Agri Start UPs participated in the meeting.