Cultivate black gram & other benefit-giving crops: Niranjan Reddy

Hyderabad: Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy on Friday urged farmers in Telangana to cultivate more black gram and benefit-giving crops. He said the government would procure all black gram produce from farmers at MSP. "We are ready to buy the crops by paying Rs 6,300 a quintal of black gram. The farmers should prefer the same", he appealed. "If the market is more the same will be offered to farmers", he assured.

Reddy held a meeting with officials and stakeholders here and took stock of farming activities. He pointed out that the country faced an acute shortage of black gram. "Keeping the larger demand in view, our farmers should cultivate more black gram instead of regular crops", Reddy stated.

"The Centre has assured the State government to procure black gram produced in Telangana", he informed. "Since the Centre will get stocks of black gram farmers should prefer to cultivate the same."

He also asked farmers to cultivate crops giving benefits in open market like green gram, mustard, sesame, groundnut, sunflower and others. The minister hoped that farmers would surely take up new crops and avoid regular crops.