The agriculture department should be proactive and formulate the required plans to inculcate a habit of cultivating crops which enjoy a demand in the market, said Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao here on Wednesday.
The regulated crop cultivation will be coming into effect from this Vaanakalam and this should continue in every season and every year. By cultivating only those crops with demand in market, agriculture will become profitable and farmers will not face the plight of their produce not getting remunerative prices, he said.
Chief Minister who held extensive discussions for three days with agriculture department officials, experts along with Agriculture Minister S. Niranjan Reddy to finalise the strategy for cultivation of crops in the State said that the ultimate aim of this exercise would be to benefit farmers and make agriculture profitable. The official machinery with the cooperation of farmers should make this a success. He also felt that though the State achieved food security, it was lagging behind in nutritional security. A general awareness be created among people on eating nutritious food and farmers be encouraged to cultivate such food crops with high nutritional value.
Mr. Rao instructed the officials to prepare correct estimates on food habits of people in the State and the country and also assess the requirement for various food crops in the State and the country. Similarly, data should also be gathered to find the demand for different crops across the world. Accordingly, the cultivation of crops should be planned. For this, government would appoint Agriculture Products Marketing Committee with experts. The committee would study the demand, marketing and prices of agricultural produce across the world and give its guidance on which crops would be profitable and accordingly cultivation would be taken up.
Modern methods
Equally important is to improve the productivity in the agricultural sector by adopting modern cultivation methods and techniques including using high quality seeds and scientific use of fertilisers and pesticides, he said.
Mr.Chandrasekhar Rao said the government would appoint an agriculture research committee to study and advice the farming community as also set up Cotton Research and Development Centre to help cotton farmers on getting higher yields and productivity through appropriate methods of cultivation of cotton varieties which have good demand. One should also assess if required number of ginning and spinning mills were available in the vicinity of cotton cultivation areas to save on transport cost.
Emphasising on demarcation of crop colonies depending on suitability of the land, he said farmers should be informed about it. A plan should be in place for the State to achieve self sufficiency in vegetable and fruits production particularly near the urban areas as demand for fruits and vegetables was more in urban areas and this would benefit both farmers and consumers.
At present potatoes, garlic and ginger were being imported to meet the demand and their cultivation within the State should be increased. Similarly onions go through seasonal fluctuations in availability and prices every year and cultivation be planned to overcome such situation. The Horticulture department should be transformed in line with the changing circumstances and a special Statistical wing be set up for accurate record of crop production, he said.
