Minister for Agriculture Pocharam Srinivas Reddy has asserted that the State-level farmers’ coordinating committee will make efforts to buy crop from the villages where remunerative price is not forthcoming.
The committee will offer 10% over and above the minimum support price to farmers, in the event of the mandal level farmer coordination committee requesting for the same citing lack of price, he informed the State Legislative Assembly here on Wednesday, while answering the members’ queries during the discussion over demands for grants. The Centre is offering MSP only for 14 kinds of foodgrains, he said, and asked the BJP members to recommend to the Centre for offering MSP for commercial crops too. Telangana government has purchased red sorghum, red gram, bengal gram, and paddy, by paying MSP, he said
Agro processing
Reiterating the proposal to set up an agro processing unit per constituency, Mr. Srinivas Reddy said the government is in the process of identifying major crops in each constituency so as to set up corresponding unit.
Responding to the statement by BJP member Chintala Ramachandra Reddy who said the State’s farmers are not able to benefit from the centre’s agri-credit of ₹11 lakh crore owing to the crop loans not being rescheduled, Mr. Srinivas Reddy said that the farmers instead are getting the investment support offered by the State government.
Heaping generous praise on Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao for various farmer-friendly schemes, including Mission Kakatiya, irrigation projects, and 24-hour power supply for farm sector, Mr. Reddy claimed this was the first government ever which offered investment support to farmers instead of collecting taxes from them. Thanks to the schemes, many districts in Telangana had zero farmer suicides in the year 2017, the Minister claimed.
First in country
Asserting that no other State in the country is offering the sort of farm subsidies that the Telangana government is, Mr. Reddy said soon plantation machines will be offered at subsidised price. Responding to a query by BJP member G. Kishan Reddy, he ruled out the possibility of offering investment support to tenant farmers.
The Centre’s crop insurance scheme is flawed as it takes either village or mandal as unit, instead of farmer.
Earlier, Mr. Ch. Ramachandra Reddy raised questions about the interest burden on waived loans, promise of Telangana as seed capital, implementation of central crop insurance scheme, and others.
The BJP MLA alleged that the Revenue overhaul exercise is flawed, as it is being done without land survey.
Livestock distribution
R. Krishnaiah from TDP sought mechanisation and modernisation of agriculture MSP for commercial crops such as turmeric, and incentives for organic farming.
CPI(M) member Sunnam Rajaiah said marketing and cooperative system should be strengthened and he demanded livestock distribution for tribals too. He also wanted agricultural extension officers should be recruited.
Two demands for grant of ₹12,734 crore for Agriculture and ₹111.36 crore for Cooperation were passed by the Assembly, apart from ₹1126.73 crore raised by the Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Department, and ₹1921 crore by the Civil Supplies Administration.
