Telangana: Agri experts suggest cultivation of paddy in 60-65 lakh acres per year

With the Telangana government having decided to promote 'regulatory farming' for the benefit of farmers in the state, agriculture experts have suggested to the state government and farmers that paddy should be cultivated in only 60 to 65 lakh acres per year during monsoon and Rabi crops so that they can get better price.

The experts, who attended a meeting with Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, made it clear that cultivation of maize in the rainy season is not at all profitable.

Instead, cotton, which is in high demand in the market, should be cultivated, an official release said on Friday night.

"Agriculture experts suggested to the state government and farmers that in order to get a support price for the crops, in the state for Monsoon and Rabi crops, paddy should be cultivated in 60 to 65 Lakhs acres per year only," it said.

The experts also suggested that Redgram should be cultivated in 10 to 15 lakh acres during the rainy season.

In the meeting with Rao, the agriculture experts made several suggestions and presented their views after studying Telanganas cultivable lands, cultivation methods and markets, both within the country and internationally, the release said.

The suggestions made by them include farmers cultivating crops that have demand in the market.

They pointed out that, though the "state government has procured all the crops" in view of the prevailing coronavirus pandemic, it is not possible for the government to procure all the crops every year.

The experts opined that there is a chance of farmers incurring losses if they produce paddy in large quantities.

"If we take into account the needs of the people in the state, demand in the markets, for two crops in a year, paddy should be cultivated in 60 to 65 Lakh acres.

If the extent of paddy cultivation is more than this, farmers will not get the right price," the release said.

They suggested that, compared to paddy, cotton cultivation is profitable.

Observing that cotton used to be cultivated in the state in the past on the basis of rainfall, they felt that yield would be more and quality would also be better if cotton is cultivated with canal water as irrigation water facility is now available in the state.

Cotton would get a better profit compared to paddy, they said.

They also suggested that it is better not to go in for the cultivation of Maize during the rainy season.

"The state government will discuss these suggestions for two days.

It will also finalise the regulatory farming policy. Later, the CM will interact with the field level officials, Rythu Bandhu Samithis (farmers coordination committees formed by the state govt) on the Comprehensive Agriculture Policy through videoconference," it said. Rao has said a decision to have regulatory agriculture cultivation in the state has been taken with the sole aim of benefitting the farmers.

He wanted farmers to cultivate the crops as suggested by the government.

He also said regulatory cultivation of paddy would begin from the coming monsoon season. The decision to have regulatory agriculture cultivation was taken in the interest of farmers as there are no buyers for crops which have no demand in the market.