CM KCR to unveil new Agriculture policy: Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy

Hyderabad: State Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy on Saturday said that the agriculture sector in Telangana taking a new direction for making it profitable to the farmers.

Participating at a review meeting on the Telangana State Integrated Agriculture Policy (TSIAP) at Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agriculture University (PJTSAU), he said Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao will spell out his vision to give direction to the TSIAP in a video conference on May 18.

The Minister said that the challenging decisions taken by KCR have been helping the sector to foray into a new path. "The CM wanted the agriculture sector in the State should systematically move forward to benefit farmers."

"Currently farmers are struggling to get even minimum support price against getting fair prices to their agriculture produce. And, the state government is attempting to come up with an action plan focussing to bring them out of the present situation," he said.

The Minister said more and more people are turning towards agriculture in the State because of the innovative and pro-farmers schemes rolled out by the State government and an increase in the availability of irrigation waters.

However, the large scale cultivation of paddy in the State has been posing troubles and farmers should be encouraged to take up alternative crops like Bengal gram, groundnut, oil palm, mustered, sesame to encourage pulses and oilseeds.

He asked the participating scientists to suggest the alternative crops with a market demand that farmers in the State could opt to cultivate.

He also asked them to study the crop patterns and demand in other States, besides, the availability of seed for such crops. He asked officials to come up with a report on the kind of support farmers needed to adopt alternative crops and the encouragement needed from the government side.

Minister S Niranjan Reddy, Rythu Bandhu Samithi presidnet Pall Rajeswar Reddy, VC A Praveen Rao and other senior officials attended.

Earlier, the minister launched a web portal hosted under the aegis of Agros to deliver organic mangos to the gated community and apartments in the city.