Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao was selected for the Agriculture Leadership Award - 2017 by the Indian Council of Food and Agriculture (ICFA) in recognition of his ‘path-breaking initiatives in irrigation and agriculture sectors in the State’.
The award was received on behalf of Mr. Rao by Telangana’s Agriculture Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy from Governor of Haryana, Prof. Dr. K.S. Solanki at the 10th Global Agriculture Leadership Summit held in New Delhi on Tuesday. Member of Parliament from Telangana, A.P. Jithender Reddy was also present. ICFA Chairman M.J. Khan said, “The initiatives taken by the Telangana State Government under the visionary leadership of Mr. Rao have resulted in the launch of a number of schemes that have created far-reaching impact on the rural sector and touched the lives of millions of farmers.”
Receiving the award on behalf of Mr. Rao, Mr. Srinivas Reddy explained, “Agriculture is one of the top items of the State Government agenda and all our efforts are towards increasing productivity and areas especially under foodgrains while ensuring that the income of the farmers goes up.”
Telangana’s Agriculture and Irrigation Policy targeted higher productivity, the Minister said, adding that several programmes like seed production under seed village scheme, quality input supply, farm mechanisation, credit, insurance and the like would be implemented to increase production.
Previous awardees include Prof. Swaminathan (2008), Dr. Balram Jakhar (2009), Mr. Sharad Pawar (2010), Prof. P.K. Dhumal (2011), Dr. Raman Singh (2012), Mr. Prakash Singh Badal (2013), Mr. Akhilesh Yadav (2014), Mr. Shivraj Chauhan (2015) and Mr. Ratan Tata (2016).
