Sircilla: KTR stresses on palm oil cultivation
Minister K T Rama Rao held a meeting on the yasangi crop season in Sircilla on Monday
Sircilla: IT and Municipal Minister KT Rama Rao on Monday said he would take up oil palm farming at Mohinikunta village in the district as a part of the State government's decision to promote oil palm farming.
The minister stressed on the need of cultivation of alternative crops by the farmers to earn a higher percentage of profit. For Telangana state to be more self-sufficient in farming there was a need to adopt crop diversification, he added.
He chaired an awareness meeting on 2021-22 Yasangi crop diversifications in Sircilla. He told chairpersons of the farmer coordination committees, agricultural extension officers and public representatives to inform the farmers about the benefits of crop rotation and cultivation of alternative crops.
Rama Rao said that the Green Revolution, the Blue Revolution, the White Revolution and the Pink Revolution were launched in Telangana with the foresight of the Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao. The minister said that the Central government had decided not to buy paddy.
Hence agriculture officials should encourage farmers to cultivate alternative crops other than rice during the coming Yasangi harvest season. He said that farmers could get higher profits with the cultivation of oil palm crop.
Every agricultural extension officer should encourage farmers to cultivate an average of one hundred acres of oil palm crop within the 57 clusters in the district. Public meetings with farmers have to be conducted to explain the benefits of oil palm cultivation to farmers. The cultivation of groundnut, lentils, sunflower, vegetables and other alternative crops should be promoted, he said.
He said 57 meetings have to be held in 57 clusters in the district by the end of September on alternative crop cultivation. He told authorities to look into setting up another five custom hiring centers in the district similar to the custom hiring center setup in Yellareddypet mandal.
The farmers should inform the district administration within the next 15 days what kind of alternative crops they want to cultivate so that there will be no difficulty in procuring seeds, Rama Rao said.