Agriculture Minister S. Niranjan Reddy said that there was a huge demand for the cotton being grown in Telangana and the government has decided to establish a cotton research centre at Adilabad.
Similarly the government has also decided to establish redgram seed research centre at Tandur in Vikarabad district.
Disclosing these details at a review meeting here on Tuesday, Mr. Niranjan Reddy said that agriculture is one of the fields which creats more employment and hence the government has been taking all steps to strengthen it.
“We have to identify the technology that will be useful for our agriculture. Focus should be on crop colonies like banana, potato, chilly, cotton seed, redgram and other vegetables. We have to take steps to grow vegetables not only surrounding Hyderabad but also in the towns and corporations across the state,” said Mr. Niranjan Reddy adding that it was decided to constitute a committee to continuously monitor the cultivation of oil palm in scientific manner.
The Minister said that additional land would be acquired for oil fed factory at Aswaraopet, land would be acquired for a factory at Vensur in Khammam district, factory at Beechupally will be transformed as oil palm factory, another two factories would be established at Siddipet and Mahabubabad.
“Four factories will become operational in the next six months. Oil palm cultivation will be taken up in about 20 lakh acres in the next four years. It was also decided to increase the potato cultivation in the state and cold storage facility will be increased for storing potato seed. It was decided to hand over the 10 acres of land in Koheda market to the warehousing corporation for the construction of cold storage,” said Mr. Niranjan Reddy stating that while the national average in agriculture development was 8.5 per cent it was 15.8 per cent in Telangana.
Rytu Bandhu Samithi president and MLC Palla Rajeswar Reddy, Agriculture Secretary Raghuandan Rao and others have participated in the programme.
