Government focusing on oil palm production in big way: Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy

Hyderabad: Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy said that the State government is targetting to achieve a target of oil palm cultivation in an extent of 7 lakh acres in the next five to seven years.

Addressing the media here on Monday, he said the Centre has identified 240 mandals in the State suitable for cultivating oil palm. "It has given permission to grow oil palm in an extent of 50,000 acres. Growing oil palm will be intensified in all the identified mandals once the Centre issues a notification," he added.

The Minister said the oil palm does not face troubles like other crops and orchids like pests and diseases etc. Besides, a farmer can grow internal crops and get income throughout the year from the oil palm, he said.

That apart, the State government has adopted a mission mode plan of action to make agriculture profitable to the farmers in the State.

For this, both the agricultural administration, agriculture universities and policy planning at the highest level are brought on to the same page. This is to boost a scientific approach to growing crops for producing quality and healthy food production, he said.

That apart, efforts are being made to draw plans to ensure that the State produces about 130 varieties of crops to meet the needs of the people in Telangana. Also, it will contribute to surplus agriculture production to the national pool. It is also planned to establish food processing units so that the State can export finish products than the raw agriculture products.

This is another aspect to ensure farmers to get remunerative prices from their agriculture production.

Along the side of the policies and planning, Telangana has also focused on optimum utilisation of the research and development prowess of the Professor Jayashanker Telangana State Agriculture University (PJTSAU), the newly started Horticultural University, as well as the crop-wise research stations existing in the State. As part of this, the State is starting a new research centre exclusively for groundnut. Crop colonies are another revolutionary step taken up as per the vision of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao. It will go a long way, benefiting farmers as well as people in getting quality and healthy agriculture products.

In turn, it will also help in improving the health standards of people in Telangana, he added.

"Till this Kharif, farmers in Telangana are cultivating various crops in an extent of 1,22,66,00 acres due to the efforts of the State government and it is expected to increase further. This is made possible because Telangana is the only State in the country which is spending around Rs 70,000 crore on agriculture and water resources, the Minister said.