Govt giving top priority to agri in realising aspirations of Gandhiji for ‘Gram Swaraj’

Hyderabad: The government has given top priority to agriculture and allied industries in the State realising the aspirations of Mahatma Gandhi for rural India ‘Gram Swaraj’ during the last eight years.

According to officials, human prosperity was closely linked to cattle wealth. Livestock plays a vital role in the social, economic and cultural life of people. A large number of poor and small farmers raise large number of cattle for their livelihood.

The government is implementing activities aimed at making the livestock sector profitable to further strengthen the rural economy. Telangana has enormous livestock with 42.32 lakh cows, 42.26 lakh buffaloes, 190.63 lakh sheep, 49.35 lakh goats, 1.78 lakh pigs and 799.99 lakh chicken. 25.82 lakh households in the State have livestock and are engaged in animal husbandry and related employment. Of that 22.45 lakh families depend on dairy cattle-rearing and 7.15 lakh families depend on sheep and goat-rearing.

Under the Sheep Distribution Scheme, the government distributed 3.94 lakh units (82.64 lakh sheep) till July 2022. Through these 1.32 crore lambs were born. By May 2023, the government allocated Rs 5,001.53 crore. The second batch of sheep distribution programme was recently undertaken.

The officials said since 2014, the government has paid Rs 4 per liter of milk to dairy farmers. As many as 2,95,785 dairy farmers benefited by the scheme. Under the scheme, farmers of Vijaya Dairy, Karimnagar Dairy, Mulkanur and Normul Dairy were benefited. Through these incentives, every year the government spends Rs 100 crore. It provided 100 mobile veterinary clinics across the State for free services to farmers.

The programme was started by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao in 2017. The government is spending Rs 30 crore every year for the programme. So far the government allocated Rs 136 crore. So far 29 lakh cattle have been provided free medical services through the programme.

In order to develop the fishing industry in the State, the government was giving free 100 per cent subsidy to fish fry and rearing them in ponds to provide direct and indirect employment to nearly four lakh fishermen who depend on the sector. The fish distribution programme was started on October 3, 2016.