Farmers represent issues to politicos

• Leaders demand increase in age limit of farmers’ insurance scheme to 70 years
• They also want that farmers get support prices at more than 50 per cent of production cost

Musheerabad: Telangana Rythu Sangham held a round-table conference on Tuesday to list out the farmer-related issues and to prepare proposals for the politicos to include the issues in their party manifestos.

The leaders of the Sangham, Malla Reddy and Sagar, informed that of the 163 lakh acres of irrigated land in Telangana, 52 lakh acres have gone dry.

Of the remaining 111 lakh acres, 30 lakh acres were transformed into irrigation land before 2014, and local tanks irrigated around 4 lakh acres, they said.

The governments that ruled prior to 2014 completed 50 to 60 per cent of projects on Krishna and Godavari rivers, which included 23 major projects and 13 medium scale projects, the leaders said.

They took objection to TRS claim that it had completed Koil Sagar Project was not true.

Agriculture crop policy should be formulated based on local weather patterns, and soils, they added.

Incentives should be given to farmers who grow alternative crops, the leaders said.

Governments should ensure that farmers get support prices of more than 50 per cent of the production cost, they said.

They demanded to increase the age limit of the farmers’ insurance scheme to 70 years.