The State government is planning to introduce the concept of crop colonies as part of the regulated farming to be implemented from the coming Vaanakalam crop season itself.
In a marathon videoconference held with District Collectors and district officers of agriculture and allied departments from Pragathi Bhavan here on Monday, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has instructed the Collectors and other officers to focus on agriculture itself for the next 15 days so that plans could be prepared on crop colonies as part of the new agricultural policy.
According to officials who participated in the meeting, the Chief Minister told the District Collectors to ensure that every eligible farmer gets the Rythu Bandhu benefit being given by the government at ₹ 5,000 per acre before the commencement of the next agricultural season so that they could use the amount for farming operations. He told the officials that the government had already arrived at a broad understanding on the crop-wise extent during the coming agricultural season.
Accordingly, it has been suggested to cultivate cotton in 70 lakh acres, paddy in 40 lakh acres including Telangana Sona superfine variety in 10 lakh acres, red gram in 12 lakh acres and vegetables in 3.5 lakh acres, the Chief Minister said, adding that agricultural experts have suggested against cultivating maize during the Vaanakalam crop season.
Paddy seed supply
On paddy seed, the Chief Minister advised the farmers not to purchase it at exorbitant price in the market as the government was planning to supply the required quantity and varieties of seed. Further, he asked the Collectors to expand oil palm cultivation to about 5 to 6 lakh acres during the next agricultural year (2020-21). He suggested the farmers to start procuring fertilizer from now on to prevent unnecessary rush at fertilizer shops and cooperative societies during July, when the farming operations would be at peak.
On capacity building and scaling up infrastructure including farm mechanisation, the Chief Minister instructed the Collectors to identify lands for the construction of ‘Rythu Vedikas’, farmers’ platforms or Rythu Bandhu Samithi offices-cum-meeting halls. The construction of such vedikas, established one each for every cluster of 5,000 acres of agricultural land, 2,604 in all, have to be completed in four-five months.
The Chief Minister also stated that the government would also establish agricultural and marketing research centres. He asked the Agriculture Department to encourage red gram cultivation not only as an inter-crop, which is a practice in Telangana, but also as basic crop and also encourage green manure crops before sowing the first crop.
Minister for Agriculture Singireddy Niranjan Reddy, Rythu Bandhu Samithi Chairman Palla Rajeshwar Reddy, Agriculture Secretary B. Janardhan Reddy and others attended.
