Agriculture experts advise Telangana to implement govt regulated farming

Agriculture experts and officials have suggested to the Telangana government that there should be a regulated policy in the state by which farmers should cultivate crops as suggested by the government and they should follow the administration's directions on the cropping pattern.

At a review meeting here on Sunday, chaired by Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao,they advised the government that those farmers who have not cultivated the crops as suggested by the government should not be given the 'Rythu Bandhu' (an agriculture investment support scheme) benefits and they also should not be paid the Minimum Support Price for their produce, an official release said.

Rao held a review on crop cultivation pattern in the state, identification of alternative crops, to make farmers go in for a regulatory cultivation, ensuring the Minimum Support Price for the agriculture produce and other related issues.

The experts from the agriculture sector said instead of farmers cultivating the crops as per their wishes, the farmers should invariably go in for the crops as suggested by the agriculture scientists, officials and experts and a policy in this regard should be enacted, the release said.

The agriculture experts, who gave several suggestions to the government on measures to be taken to make agriculture profitable in Telangana state, also made it clear that crops should be cultivated in the State, based on the food habits of the people and those having high demand in the markets.

The government should decide on which crop the farmer should cultivate and it is important that the entire cultivation is done based on this policy, they made it clear.

To cultivate in this pattern, there should be government regulation and that awareness should come among farmers on this matter, they said.

Also, to make farmers get used to the new cultivation policy, the government should act with some stringent measures, they proposed.

Rao said he will directly meet the field level agriculture officers on the comprehensive agriculture policy to be implemented in the state.

The chief minister noted that farmers should go in for diversification of crops instead of cultivating a same crop and incurr losses, the release added.

On Saturday, Rao had instructed the officials to prepare a comprehensive agriculture policy for the state with an aim to make the agriculture sector profitable.

Rao said he would be talking to farmers through clusters, farmers groups such as Rythu Bandhu Samithis and agriculture officers through a video conference very soon.PTI VVK SS PTI PTI