Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has said that a comprehensive strategy is being finalised to ensure that the farmers will get appropriate price for their produce.
With increasing irrigation facility, paddy cultivation is taking place on a record scale and Telangana is transforming into rice bowl of India as the extent of crops and yield are also increasing, it is important to ensure that farmers get a fair price for their produce, he said.
Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao held a review meeting with Agriculture Minister S. Niranjan Reddy, Civil Supplies Minister Gangula Kamalakar, Chief Advisor, Chief Secretary and other senior officials at Pragathi Bhavan here on Tuesday.
The Chief Minister instructed the officials to construct godowns with additional storage capacity of 40 lakh tonnes in addition to the existing 22.5 lakh tonnes of storage and 2,500 Rythu Vedikas. A policy should be finalised to activate the Rythu Bandhu Samithis into an organised sector. The godowns should be planned in rural areas under every Assembly Constituency. The godowns should be completed in seven to eight months, he said.
About 22.3 lakh tonnes of fertilisers would be required for the vana kalam (kharif) season and fertilisers required for the month of June were available now itself, farmers should start purchasing them from now, he said warning that those who resort to selling of fake fertilisers, pesticides and seeds would be sternly dealt with and cases under PD Act would be registered against them.
Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao reviewed procurement of yasangi crop, arrangements for cultivation of vana kalam season crops, remunerative price for crops, extension of activities of Civil Supplies Corporation, construction of godowns, etc.
He said after formation of Telangana State, government took many measures for the development of agriculture sector as 60 lakh to 65 lakh farmers were dependent on it. The situation of farmers improved to some extent but more has to be done, he said.
Priority for irrigation to utilise 1,300 tmc of Krishna and Godavari waters, revival of tanks under Mission Kakatiya, free 24x7 supply of power helped in increasing availability of irrigation facilities. Two crops could be cultivated in 1.45 crore acres and three crops in 10 lakh acres as a result of these measures.
In the coming years, the yield of crops would double and it should be the responsibility of the government to finalise a strategy to ensure support price for the crops. The agriculture, Civil Supplies and Rythu Bandhu Samithi should take steps towards this end, he said.
Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao said to help farmers in the present difficult time of COVID-19 pandemic, government was purchasing every grain cultivated by the farmers. In future too, farmers should get minimum support price.
He directed the Civil Supplies Corporation to extend its activities to ensure that apart from giving remunerative prices to farmers, consumers too should get rice, pulses and other essential commodities at affordable prices. The Corporation should buy paddy, pulses from farmers and through food processing units convert them into commodities. The Civil Supplies Corporation should evolve an action plan for this, he said.
He also said farmers should move away from the practice of cultivating a single crop and they should cultivate crops based on market demand which would be decided by the Agriculture Department. The crops cultivated in regulated manner would be bought by the government. If needed, government would bring necessary amendments in the existing law. The Agriculture Department should record who is cultivating what and where.
He advised farmers in Gadwal and other areas who were producing seeds should enter into agreement with companies directly and cultivate the seed crops to get better deals instead of sellig them to individual agents.
