Agriculture Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy on Tuesday said going organic was the way forward for farmers in the State, considering the increasing concerns over rising input costs and declining productivity.
At a meeting of agricultural officials from across the 10 districts of Telangana, organised by the Prof. Jayashankar Telangana Agricultural University here, he wanted officials to motivate farmers on the need to grow organic food.
Win-win situation
He said when the movement to go organic picked up, it would mean a win-win situation for farmers and consumers.
“While farmers will get a much higher price for their produce, consumers would benefit from significantly lesser healthcare costs due to consumption of healthy, chemical-free food,” the Minister categorically stated.
The Government of Telangana and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao were all for such a movement, he said, pointing out that organic products - be it foodgrain, vegetables or fruits that were free of fertilisers and pesticides would sell like ‘hot cakes’.
Farmers' suicides
Since Independence, a whopping 20 lakh farmers died, amounting to the population of an average district, due to three main reasons, apart from a failure of policy and implementation. The reasons included steeply rising input costs, increased burden of loans from banks and private money-lenders, compounded by natural calamities and unfavourable seasonal conditions.
“We need to address these issues in a comprehensive manner,” Mr. Reddy said, terming the meeting as the beginning.
The Centre’s ‘Paramparagath Krishi Vikas Yojana’ aimed at promoting organic farming in groups of 50 farmers was a good augury of things to come, he said.
He explained that 295 such clusters were coming up in nine districts of Telangana, over a total expanse of 14,750 acres. This would be 50:50 funded by the Centre and State.
