With just one crore acres of cultivable land and depending on other countries for its foodgrains needs, Egypt has grown to export foodgrains, fruits and vegetables to European countries by following the regulated farming method, Minister for Agriculture S. Niranajn Reddy has said.
Speaking at two Kharif (Vanakalam) preparatory meetings held at Warangal and Hanmakonda on Tuesday – for Warangal, Jayashankar-Bhupalapally and Mahabubabad districts and for Mulugu, Hanmakonda and Jangaon districts – the Minister said India with over 40 crore acres of cultivable lands would have the capacity to meet the foodgrains needs of many countries, provided the quality and productivity was improved.
Farmers of Egypt were growing fruits such as grapes, watermelon, vegetables and other horticulture crops with treated sewage water and exporting the produce to several countries, although the major crop cultivated was wheat. However, in spite of having excessive stocks of cereals such as wheat and rice, the Centre had banned wheat exports recently within weeks of announcing exports.
Stating that irrigation facility holds key to success of agriculture, the Minister said Telangana Government had increased the irrigation potential by completing pending projects, taking up new projects, reviving minor irrigation tank system. In addition, the government was also extending investment support to farmers at ₹10,000 per acre every year under Rythu Bandhu scheme and providing free power supply to agricultural pump-sets.
The government was also implementing Rythu Bima life insurance scheme to farmers below 60 years of age. In the event of a landholding farmer’s death irrespective of the cause, the family concerned would get insurance claim of ₹5 lakh within 10 days, he explained.
Asking farmers to keep their lands under cultivation continuously to maintain its fertility, Mr. Niranjan Reddy said soil fertility would degrade even if it is kept idle. He also suggested the farmers to increase productivity and reduce investment and go for crops such as pulses, oil-palm, cotton and horticulture crops such as citrus, sweetlime, guava, banana, mango and others which have good demand.
Stating that it was TRS that had raised first the demand for linking MGNREGS with agriculture in 2008, the Minister said BJP had included in its 2014 election manifesto but did not implement it so far. He also criticised Congress for announcing Warangal Declaration without implementing the measures in States under its rule.
Ministers E. Dayakar Rao, Satyavathi Rathod, Chairman of Rythu Bandhu Samithi P. Rajeshwar Reddy also spoke at the meetings attended by MPs P. Dayakar, M. Kavitha, legislators P. Sudershan Reddy, B. Shankar Naik, G. Venkataramana Reddy, Ch. Dharma Reddy, A. Ramesh, B. Saraiah, B. Prakash, Agriculture Secretary M. Raghunandan Rao, Director of Horticulture L. Venkatrami Reddy and others participated.
