Grow what markets wants, Telangana CM directs farmers

Financial support to stop for farmers not adhering to state's order

HYDERABAD, 14 May 2020: What can be seen as interfering in the functioning of farmers' mandate, Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao is working on a policy that will allow the state government to decided which crop farmer will produce in the state.

The chief minister believes that farmers should only produce those crops, which the market wants.

The new plan will be implemented during this Kharif season. Under this, farmers will be asked to grow paddy on 50 lakh acres (including the Telangana Sona variety on 10 lakh acres of land), cotton on 50 lakh acres, and red gram on 10 lakh acres, a business daily, Hindu Businessline reported.  

Village to grow paddy, cotton; Urban to grow vegetables

The state government wants a larger area of land in villages and rural to grow paddy, cotton red gram, while farmland close to urban areas will grow vegetables and horticultural crops to tap the demand.

Farmers not adhering to lose agriculture investment support scheme

Farmers that do not follow the state government order will not get government sops such as Agriculture Investment Support Scheme (Rythu Bandhu) under which a farmer gets INR 5,000 each in both the seasons for every acre they own.

The chief minister said that the market doesn’t buy whatever farmers produce. One should cultivate crops which sell well, the paper quoted the chief minister.

There should be a qualitative change in the thinking of farmers. They should change the current practices that are not giving them good returns.

The chief minister also said that very soon, the state will release a detailed cropping map, and seeds will be sold accordingly.

First state to bring such regulate crop farming

The state will set up a Seed Regulatory Authority to regulate sales and production of seeds to conform to the crop mandate to be given by the government.

For this, the government will bring in necessary amendments to the Seed Act.

To implement this government plan, the Chief Minister will hold a meeting tomorrow through video conferencing with all the stakeholders, including field-level agricultural officials.