HYDERABAD: The Telangana government headed by Chief Minister K Chandrashekara Rao has taken a decision to regulate crops cultivation in the state. Farmers will henceforth be guided by the state officials on the types of crops to be cultivated and to what extent. Taking a tough stand on this issue, the state government has asked the farming community to strictly adhere to the new crop cultivation pattern. Those who fail to do so will lose benefits from the government including input subsidy and state-sponsored farmer welfare schemes like Rythu Bandhu besides minimum support price (MSP), the government has warned.

Chief Minister KCR has taken this decision at a high-level meeting held at Pragathi Bhavan on the cultivation of alternative crops in the state.

The objective behind this decision of the state government is to guide the farming community so that they can produce the most ideal crops which will create demand for their produce in the market. This, according to the government, is to discourage the farmers from producing the same type of crops across the state which will result in surplus production and lesser demand. This in turn will harm the farmers’ prospects in the form of a steep decline in the prices for their farm produce.

KCR, during the high-level meeting, said that the state government would set off this regulation of crops with paddy, whose cultivation will be limited to about 50 lakh acres across the state. The Telangana Sona variety of paddy will alone be cultivated in 10 lakh acres while red gram will be allowed to be produced in another 10 lakh acres. Cotton will be cultivated in 50 lakh acres. The state government has also decided to give importance to farming of vegetables in agricultural lands that are located close to urban areas.

The farmers of the state will be enlightened about the new cropping pattern starting from the coming Kharif season. Experts from the Agriculture sector will guide the farmers in their farming activities to help them maximize their profits.

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