State Election Commissioner C. Parthasarathi said that the old undivided district of Nizamabad has been the grain bowl and farmers here produce good quality of turmeric which constitutes 8 per cent of the total crop production in the world.
He said that turmeric being produced in the district had international demand and was being exported to various countries. If farmers were provided some more facilities it could fetch a good price making its production more profitable, he said while participating as the chief guest in the seminar titled Leadership Meet-Nizamabad Growth Agenda-2021 organised by Excel India news magazine, at Nizamabad on Sunday.
“The ganj (market) here is the second largest one in the State and turmeric purchases and sales are done through e-NAM in this market. If our farmers adopt new methods in cultivation, go for farm mechanisation and maintain moisture levels within the permissible limits the crop would be much sought after internationally,” he said.
Dwelling at length on the various problems besetting the district Mr. Parthasarathy who was the Principal Secretary, Agriculture, in one of his last assignments in government service before becoming the State Election Commissioner, said that the food processing industrial policy which is ready is once accepted by government many good industrial units would come up providing a lot of job opportunities to youth.
Presiding over the meet senior IAS officer and Shatavahana University vice-chancellor (in-charge) T. Chiranjeevulu said that the district has been lagging behind in several aspects compared to state averages. Per capita income in the state was R. 2.24 lakh while the per capita income in the district was just Rs. 1.14 lakh. Similarly, though the gender ratio was 1,000 males for 1,058 females, the women literacy rate was 10 percentage points below the state average, he added.
Ravi Reddy, Resident Editor, The Hindu , Hyderabad, said that there is a lot of scope for agri tourism development in the district. Apart from Ankapur there are three dozen other villages which have ample potentialities for agri-tourism development, he said.
Telangana State Higher Education Council vice-chairman R. Limbadri, Telangana University Registrar Naseem, and Excel India Editor S. Ramakrishna spoke.
