Telangana State eggs on red gram, cotton farmers

Hyderabad: Telangana State government has decided to give top priority to cultivation of red gram, cotton and oilseeds in the ensuing rainy (Kharif) agriculture season.

Disclosing this at a review meeting, State Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy asked the senior officials to set a target to increase the cultivation of red gram in 20 lakh acres and cotton in 75 lakh acres.

The Minister who reviewed the positioning of the seeds for the Kharif and crop pattern following the directions of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, said the availability of increased water resources in Telangana had led to the increase in the extent of cultivation. However, there was a phenomenal growth of paddy cultivation in the State. During the ensuing agriculture season, he asked officials to take up a campaign in a big way to convince farmers not to cultivate paddy. Instead, take up cultivation oilseeds as they have good demand in the domestic and international markets. He stressed the need that the seed companies should make available seeds of oilseeds for farmers and asked the Agriculture Department officials to take the message among the farmers in the coming two months.

As the State government set a target to increase the cultivation of red gram in 20 lakh acres and cotton in 75 lakh acres, he said steps should be taken to ensure that the 57 seed companies supply 1.7 crore quality cotton seed packets ahead of the beginning of the sowing of the Kharif season. The Minister directed the officials to take stringent action against the companies providing spurious cotton seeds.

Similarly, to meet the demand for the cultivation of oilseeds, he asked the officials to ensure 80,000 quintals of seeds made available to the farmers. For this, Niranjan Reddy asked officials to augment the required seeds from the Central, State seed development corporations, agriculture university and private companies. For the first time in the country, steps have been taken to supply quality seeds to the farmers with a QR code for seed traceability. About 22 lakh quintals of certified seeds will be made available to the farmers for cultivation of different crops to an extent of 90 lakh acres in the Kharif, he added. As part of the action plan to position the seeds, it was decided to make available the seeds in all the districts by May 15. Senior officials were asked to prepare an action plan by conducting a district-wise survey for the cultivation of the cotton crop. The District Collectors should rope in teams of Kalajatas to create awareness among the farmers, he said. State Seed Development Corporation Director Kesavulu, Joint Director Agriculture Balu, Deputy Director Agriculture Siva Prasad and representatives of the seed companies participated in the video conference.