Wanaparthy, Sept.29 (NSS): Minister for IT and Industries KT Rama Rao said the Telangana farmers are enjoying the good days under the leadership of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao as they have been assured with various schemes, including Rythu Bima, Rythu Bandhu and 24 hours free power supply.
Speaking after laying foundation stone for Pre Unique India Pvt Ltd’s Oil Palm factory at Sankireddy Pally in Wanaparthy district on Friday, KT Rama Rao said that KCR was the only Chief Minister in the country to extend investment subsidy to farmers in the 75 years of Indian Independence.
Telangana is now at the top position in paddy production in the country, but the Centre is creating troubles while purchasing the paddy from the State. If agriculture is to be profitable, farmers should go for alternative crops, KTR said.
The Minister said that as India was importing edible oils from Malaysia and Indonesia countries in a big way, the State government was promoting oil palm cultivation extensively in Telangana and was targeting to cultivate oil palm in 20 lakh acres in five years.
During the last 30 years, the successive governments had managed to cultivate oil palm in only 30,000 acres. However, the State government has decided to increase the oil palm cultivation in 20 lakh acres in the next five years, KTR said.
Minister for Agriculture Singireddy Niranjan Reddy said that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had taken various measures to strengthen the agriculture sector in Telangana and farmers were being encouraged for the crops rotation.
The country needs 22,000 million tonnes of edible oil in which 15,000 million tonnes of oil is being imported from the abroad. The Telangana government is encouraging oil palm cultivation in a big way by extending subsidies to farmers, Niranjan Reddy said.
