State Soon To Have Own Branded Dates

Hyderabad: Telangana State is all set to have its own branded dates. According to State Agriculture and Horticulture officials, the horticulture centres of excellence has grown date varieties in an extent of three acres.

The seedlings of date have been sourced from prominent research centres and started growing at the Mulugu and Siddipet Horticulture Centres of Excellence.

Following the successful growth and quality registered in the output, the departments are planning to convince farmers in Nalgonda, Medak and Mahbubnagar to take up the date cultivation in a big way.

Speaking to The Hans India, a senior official from the State Agriculture Department (SAD) said "The Principal Secretary Agriculture C Parthasarathy and Horticulture Commission L Venkat Rami Reddy have recently inspected the centres at Mulugu and Siddipeta to take stock of operations underway at these two centres.

The two centres have sourced multiple varieties of fruit crops from different research centres in the country and growing 15,895 verities of fruit-bearing trees since 2017. Of the several fruit-bearing verities, dates being a tropical crop is also given preference and farmers in the areas like Nalgonda have already started cultivating the crop, he said.

As of now, farmers are getting an average rate of Rs 150 per kilogram of dates and Nalgonda, Medak and Mahbubnagar are identified as the suitable areas for cultivation of the crop, he added.

Officials claim that the State government's action plan to encourage horticulture crops would further give a boost to the date cultivation in the three districts. In addition to this, there are also plans to establish food processing units linking to area-wise crops grown in the State.

This would further give a fillip for Nalgonda, Medak and Mahbubnagar to become hubs not only for the cultivation but also to the processing and production of dates and its by-products, for Telangana to have its own brand of dates in near future.

Another important advantage in growing dates is that the market for the crop is not a seasonal one like mangoes and other fruits.

As people consume dates throughout the year and it has a domestic as well as international market. In turn, this would help farmers to get a good price for their produce, he said.