The Telangana Government has announced that it will set up a 300-acre exclusive market for horticultural produce.
The market will come up at Kongar Kolan in Ranga Reddy district. “It will be modelled after the Azadpur mandi in the national capital,” Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has said.
“The focus should be on the marketing. We need to find suitable target markets abroad for horticultural produce. We need to promote those horticultural crops that have huge demand in the domestic and international markets,” he said.
The State grows horticultural crops on 10 lakh acres out of the total cropped area of 144 lakh acres.
Rao asked the Horticulture Department to prepare a comprehensive Horticulture Cultivation Policy to bring in qualitative changes in the cultivation of horticultural crops, a Chief Minister’s Official said.
He directed the officials to visit other States to study and prepare the policy in the next three months.
The Chief Minister said the Government would appoint an extension officer in each mandal, exclusively to take care of the horticultural crops.
“There is a need to expand the horticulture department. There should be special divisions in the Horticulture Department headed by senior officials to ensure quality in the produce,” he said.
He asked the officials to prepare a plan on how to expand the department. He also asked them to indicate additional staff required to strengthen the department.