A seven-member official delegation from Uttar Pradesh headed by Agriculture Minister of that State, Surya Pratap Sahi, was here on Sunday, for an interactive meeting with the officials of the Agriculture Department of Telangana, on the welfare and development schemes being implemented here.
The visiting team enquired about the initiatives of Telangana government in agriculture sector. The two sides came to an understanding that there were several areas in which the two States could cooperate for mutual benefit.
At the beginning of the meeting, Principal Secretary (Agriculture) and Agriculture Production Commissioner of Telangana C. Parthasarathi gave a PowerPoint presentation on the initiatives of the Telangana government.
Mr. Parthasarathi explained that apart from implementation of up to ₹1 lakh farm loan waiver, the State government was encouraging farm mechanisation and poly/green houses on a large scale. In addition, uninterrupted free power supply to agriculture and construction of godowns were also taken up for the benefit of the farming community.
More recently, the government had introduced input support scheme (Rythu Bandhu) with ₹4,000 per acre assistance per season and group life insurance to farmers (Rythu Bima) under which the nominee of farmers in the age-group of 19-59 years would be given an amount of ₹5 lakh in the event of insured farmer’s death, Mr. Parthasarathi explained.
Seed sector
On the status of seed sector, Mr. Parthasarathi explained that Telangana was producing about 60% of the total seeds required for the country and about 90% of the jowar and pearl millet (bajra) hybrid seed. About 400 seed companies were thriving in Telangana due to conducive conditions for the production of quality seed coupled with standard certification processes.
Complimenting the initiatives of the Telangana government for the welfare of farming community, the Uttar Pradesh Minister also listed out the welfare measures being implemented there including up to ₹one lakh farm loan waiver to small and marginal farmers, implementation of support price scheme and others.
Chairman of Telangana State Seed Development Corporation K. Koteshwar Rao, Director of TS Seed and Organic Certification Authority K. Keshavulu, Director of Agricultural Marketing G. Laxmi Bai , scientists from agriculture and horticulture universities attended the meeting.