Minister for Agriculture Singireddy Niranjan Reddy has requested the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) to sanction several research institutes to the State to support the efforts of Telangana government towards ensuring better remuneration to farmers with the help of regulated farming and other supportive measures.
Speaking at the regional meet of ICAR held virtually on Thursday, the Minister explained that the State government was giving importance to cultivation of crops that had demand at national and international level and accordingly encouraging the farmers to take up such crops. He stated that Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University was playing an important role in implementing the government plans to make agriculture remunerative.
The virtual meeting was chaired by Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and was attended by Director General of ICAR Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary (Agriculture) of Telangana B. Janardhan Reddy, Vice-Chancellor of PJTSAU V. Praveen Rao and Agriculture Ministers and officials of the southern States.
Mr. Niranjan Reddy explained to the Union Minister and ICAR Director General that crops were cultivated in about 1.45 crore acres this season including paddy in about 53 lakh acres, cotton in 60 lakh acres and red gram in 11 lakh acres and requested them to sanction a research centre on high-density cotton cultivation at Warangal, on mustard at Jagitial, on water management in Hyderabad and on groundnut at Wanaparthy.
He stated that Wanaparthy area was known for cultivation of aflatoxin-free groundnut.
