KCR takes a break from Covid and turns to farming

Hyderabad: On Sunday Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao found time for matters other than Covid-19 and so decided to have a direct interaction with field officers of the agriculture department and representatives of the Rythu Bandhu Samiti.

The meeting, the second in two days, was held by videolink from his office-cum-residence Pragati Bhavan and the topic on the agenda was the proposed comprehensive agriculture policy, which is aimed at making farming profitable.

The chief minister instructed officials to prepare a policy under which farmers will grow crops in sync with the food habits of the people and as per market demand. He said, “The state government must decide on the crops to be cultivated by farmers. The food requirements of the people must be met as well as market demand. We must identify alternative crops and guide farmers to cultivate them accordingly. Thereafter, the government will ensure a minimum support price for every crop.”

Agriculture experts and officials who took part in the meetings supported this approach, with some of them going to the extent of suggesting that farmers who do not cultivate crops as prescribed by the government should not be given Rythu Bandhu benefits nor paid a minimum support price.

The chief minister said that in view of the completion of new irrigation projects, paddy would be cultivated in about 90 lakh acres in the ensuing vanakalam (the new name for kharif) crop season. Estimates are that annual production would be of the order of 2.70 lakh tonnes of paddy, which would require a huge milling capacity. This would mean that new rice mills would have to be set up and the capacity of those in operation would have to be increased.

Chandrashekar Rao emphasised the need to take an inventory of the Agriculture Department to record comprehensive information on assets, loans, buildings and other details. He wanted the officials to prepare a report on the availability of farm equipment like tractors, harvesters and other machinery in each village. “An action plan should be prepared accordingly. We must have complete information pertaining to each farmer,” Chandrashekar Rao said.