Telangana: Plans afoot to increase vegetables cultivation

Hyderabad: Answering to a question raised on the shortage of vegetable supplies, Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy said the State government was proactively pursuing plans to increase the cultivation of vegetables in order to meet the demand of people in the State.

The Minister, speaking in the Assembly on Saturday, said that the vegetables were being cultivated in over 2.73 lakh acres of land, registering 24.99 lakh metric tonnes of yields.

Out of 40 varieties of vegetables consumed by people in the State, only 24 varieties are cultivated in the State in enough quantities, said Niranjan Reddy. The remaining 16 varieties of vegetables are imported from other States, he added.

In Telangana, during the peak season, about 32 per cent of tomatoes, 10 per cent of chillis, about 7.4 per cent of ladyfingers and 7.3 per cent brinjal are cultivated, he clarified.

Moreover, Telangana bags 15th place in vegetable production and 16th place for the cultivation of vegetables in the country.

Niranjan Reddy also claimed that the vegetable cultivation in Telangana has escalated when compared to the combined State of Andhra Pradesh.

Currently potato is being cultivated only in the extent of 2,000 acres in the State. However, steps are being taken to increase its cultivation, he added. During the current budget, Rs 242 crore has been allocated to the horticulture sector and Rs 50 crore exclusively for vegetable production.

The Agriculture Minister said that study visits were paid to other States to take stock of implementation of technology in the cultivation of vegetables.

The same is discussed with the experts in the State on how to replicate the same to increase the quality vegetable production in the State and steps have been taken to implement definite actions plans in this regard, he said.

Earlier, raising the issue during the Question Hour, Subhash Reddy highlighted the shortage in the per capita consumption of vegetables by people in the State to keep up their health and what steps were taken by the State government to ensure an adequate supply of vegetables to meet the peoples' demands?