Government mulls ways to achieve better yield: Agri Minister Niranjan Reddy

Hyderabad: State was able to cultivate crop in more than 1.4 crore acres of land during the monsoon season, Agriculture Minister Singireddy Niranjan Reddy informed the Assembly on Wednesday.

The Minister said all the details in this regard were awaited including land extent and crop variety etc. "By the time of arrival of Yasangi (Rabi), we will be getting even the minute details," he said.

Niranjan Reddy clarified that the government was able to reach out to all the 60,000 farmers across the State as part of Rythu Bhima scheme. "Some 58,000 farmers are now covered under the scheme and those who are left out are because of reasons like non-agriculture land, failure in providing details like pass book, bank account details and age factor," the Minister said.

"About 92.5 farmers with less than 5 acres of land come under category of small farmers. The government is pondering over ways to achieve better yield by bringing them together in the form of community or group clusters," he explained.

On the issue of Central government's funds not being utilised, the Minister elaborated that the government was awaiting matching grant and also approached the NABARD. "The Central government funds will be utilised as the government was waiting for matching grant," he said.