Minister for Agriculture S. Niranjan Reddy has stated that Telangana government has been working towards the financial empowerment of the farming community.
Speaking at a meet on “value addition for income generation in agriculture” at Thrissur in Kerala on Tuesday, he explained how Telangana government had taken up interventions to help the agriculture sector overcome the crisis by completing pending irrigation projects, taking up new ones, giving input support of ₹5,000 per acre, ₹5 lakh life insurance cover, restoration of minor irrigation tanks and 24×7 free power supply, among others.
Mr. Niranjan Reddy felt that farmers could get better income only with the help of food processing, managements of crops that were being produced in excess of consumption, steps for better and longer storage agriculture and horticulture produce and ensuring support price at the farm gate itself. Such measures would not only improve the farmers’ income but would also encourage ancillary industries.
Food processing
Stating that the State government had included food processing industries in 14 priority sectors in the new industrial policy, Mr. Niranjan Reddy said encouragement of farm mechanisation, construction of poly/green houses and micro irrigation had also been helping in increase in production and productivity of various crops.
Further, he stated that the government had set up an officials committee to study food processing units and a cabinet sub-committee was working on the new food processing policy. The new policy would encourage establishment of food processing unit by providing basic infrastructure and would tie-up them with farmer producer organisations (FPOs) of women self help groups for supply of raw material and a FPOs’ company Be’nishan was also launched recently.
Cooperative farming
Later, Mr. Niranjan Reddy visited the rice research station near Thrissur and enquired about rice cultivation methods, mechanisation, irrigation, yield, availability of labour and others. He was informed that about 800 farmers had formed into a cooperative society to cultivate paddy in 900 acres and it had also helped them overcome the labour problem.
The Minister stated that there was a need to take up Kerala-type cooperative farming in Telangana too and to reduce labour costs the farmers were soaking seed paddy in water and spraying the sprouts instead of raising nurseries and transplantation.
