Agriculture growth in the last five years has been negative though it has been compensated by contribution from allied agricultural activities in Telangana, said the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) in a report presented at the credit plan seminar on Friday.
Expressing the bank’s perspective with regard to doubling farmers income in the State within six years as enunciated by the Central Government, the bank said a multi-sectoral, multi-agency approach is required to increase productivity in different sectors to increase the income of farmers substantially.
High dependency on well irrigation coupled with low rainfall is acting as a constraint for achieving high agriculture growth.
High dependence on agriculture with low productivity and without much diversification into non-farm activity is a constraint, it said.
Also, a high dependence on allied agriculture and non-farm activities which are non-income fetching and low dependency on agriculture has not resulted in higher income to farmers with Medak district being a good representative of this feature.
At the same time, low dependency on agriculture with diversification into high income fetching allied agriculture and non-farm activities did contribute to higher income for farmers as it happened in Mahabubnagar district.
As per the Nabard study, change in the cropping pattern from food to non-food crops was remarkable and while there has been an increase in the acrage of horticulture crops, only two to three per cent of the produce was processed.
Nabard has mooted sector-wise interventions to improve income - like reduction in input costs, water management, productivity enhancement, diversification, access to credit, soil management, research and development, post-harvest management, access to market, etc.
