Hyderabad: Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Monday urged farmers in Telangana to cultivate cotton in 75 to 80 lakh acre in the monsoon season since the cotton produced in the State commanded a good price in the international market.
“Since cotton produced in the State is of high quality with high yield besides commanding a higher price as well, farmers should be ready to grow cotton in 75 to 80 lakh acre during the monsoon season,” the Chief Minister said, and directed Principal Secretary (Agriculture) Janardhan Reddy to make arrangements for procurement of cotton seed.
Similarly, arrangements should also be made to cultivate red gram in 20 to 25 lakh acre in the State, Chandrashekhar Rao said, adding that if cotton and red gram crops are given water periodically, the yield would also be much more.
Pointing out that paddy was cultivated in 52.76 lakh acre in the State this summer season, he said the yield was expected to touch 1.17 crore metric tonne of coarse variety paddy and 21 lakh metric tonne of fine variety paddy. The Chief Minister instructed Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar to identify lands to be given on lease to the Central Warehousing Corporation who are ready to construct additional godowns in the State to store the foodgrains.
Ensure water to tail end lands
Chandrashekhar Rao also instructed the Water Resources Department Officials to ensure that water is supplied to lands under irrigation projects for another 10 days to ensure that crops don’t dry up. “Farmers from Suryapet district are complaining that tail-end lands are not getting water. Officials should ensure that water is supplied to tail-end lands. Not even a single acre should dry up due to lack of water,” he said.
The Chief Minister instructed Engineer in Chief B Shankar over phone to supply Kaleswaram water to tail-end lands in Suryapet district under the jurisdiction of Lower Manair Dam to DBM-71.
Ministers Niranjan Reddy, E Dayakar Rao, Satyavathi Rathod, Civil Supplies Corporation Chairman Mareddy Srinivas Reddy, Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, CM Principal Secretary S Narsing Rao, Secretary Bhoopal Reddy, Principal Secretary (Finance) Ramakrishna Rao, Principal Secretary (Agriculture) Janardhan Reddy, Civil Supplies Commissioner Anil Kumar, FCI General Manager Ashwini Gupta and others participated in the meeting.
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