News Brief
Now, Telangana Will Tell Its Farmers What Crops They Should Grow, Links Its Decision With MSP Payment
- Aim is to give farmers ‘direction’ and make agriculture ‘purpose-’ and ‘target-driven’.
- Hitherto, farmers were growing crops without application of ‘market sense’, said the Chief Minister.
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR) (pic via Twitter)
The Telangana government will henceforth decide what crops farmers in the state will grow as part of its efforts to make agriculture more profitable through scientific cultivation based on market demands.
Livemint reported that Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao said that the state government has decided to regulate farming beginning from the current Kharif sowing season starting June.
This means, it will decide what crop will be grown in a given area and on how much of land.
This is a path-breaking decision since no other government has ever made such an attempt to regulate farming, which reminds us of the way the Chinese control agriculture.
Recently, the Telangana government decided to term Kharif sowing as ‘Vaanakalam’ (rainy) season and ‘Yasangi’ (summer) season.
To begin with, paddy, both fine and coarse varieties, will be cultivated in the state in 50 lakh acres, while cotton will be planted equally on 50 lakh acres. Among paddy varieties, the popular Sona variety will be grown on 10 lakh acres.
The state will plant pigeon pea or tur on 10 lakh acres. Rao’s Telangana Rashtra Samithi government will pay a minimum support price (MSP) only to farmers who follow the state government’s directions.
Stating that farmers were not getting remunerative prices, he said the main reason was that all of them were producing the same crop without any prior plan.
“Farmers must cultivate crops to meet market demand. I have suggested this model over the last 20 years to many national leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but no one has acted on it. It is high time we took the lead,” Rao said.
The Telangana government will also promote the cultivation of vegetables in farmlands abutting urban areas. Farmers will be guided on the vegetable varieties to be cultivated based on location and land available.
The Chief Minister will hold a video conference on Friday with field-level officers and discuss the proposed regulation on cultivation to seek their suggestions.
Telangana has also decided to come up with a new seed regulatory authority to ensure only seeds of identified crops are sold.
It also plans to come out with a comprehensive agricultural policy.
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