Telangana seeks drought relief measures from Centre

HYDERABAD

Drought conditions are prevailing across 315 out of 621 mandals in the Telangana and different sections are awaiting relief measures from the Centre, Minister for Agriculture Tummala Nageswara Rao has said. He has requested the Centre to provide wage employment work to farmworkers and water conservation works widely under the VB-G RAM G programme.

The Minister stated that the ‘khet bachao abhiyan’ would be implemented in the State from October 22 to 30 with the national agricultural institutions and universities. During a virtual meeting chaired by the Union Agriculture Minister, he sought additional budgetary allocation for micro irrigation implements and inter-cropping seed.

Reiterating the request for 100% procurement of maize, jowar and other major crops, Mr. Rao suggested lifting of the 25% cap on the procurement of such crops under the minimum support price-price support scheme operations. He further wanted the Centre to rationalise the prices of fertilizers and subsidies.

The Minister stated that such measures were necessary in the wake of the El Nino impact on the State as they would help farmers control the loss to some extent. He felt that farmers would adapt to the crop pattern changes only if their existing crops’ produce was procured entirely at MSP.