Singireddy seeks USDA cooperation in agriculture research

Hyderabad: State Agriculture Minister Singireddy Niranjan Reddy, on his third day of US tour, held discussions with the USDA representatives and met with Manjit Mishra, NIFA director, at the National Institute of Food and Agriculture in Washington, DC on Thursday and sought cooperation to work together in areas such as IT, farm economics, seed technology, post-harvest management, marketing, emerging technologies, new planting tech.

The minister said the government was expecting cooperation of the US Department of Agriculture in research. “Our desire is Telangana farmers should adopt latest technology. It is our responsibility to ensure that future generations invest in agriculture and allied sectors,” he said. While informing development of the agriculture sector in Telangana to the US representatives, Reddy said the agri sector in the State had made significant progress in nine years under the leadership of Chief Minister KCR.

“Our government is aware of the role of agriculture and allied sectors in employment generation. That’s why farmers are encouraged by pro-agricultural policies.

From a State of crises under the united Andhra Pradesh regime, agriculture has emerged as booming sector with tremendous production output due to support given to farmers by the government,” he observed. Reddy enumerated various schemes and programmes being implemented by the government such as RythuBandhu, Rythu Bheema for farmers as crop investment and insurance for farmers’ families.

The minister highlighted other programmes like the Mission Kakatiya, through which lakes and ponds were desilted; ponds were built to get water back to them.