Telangana Agri dept lauded for innovative methods

​Hyderabad: State government's initiative of Agriculture Extension Officers (AEOs) using tabs and technology in delivering investment support and group insurance claim settlements in a time-bound manner with the help of National Informatics Centre (NIC) has been appreciated by the strategic teams of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Rome in Italy.

State Principal Secretary Agriculture C Parathasarathi and Director of Telangana State Seed and Organic Certification Authority Dr K Keshavulu presented a series of efforts made by the State Agriculture Department (SAD) to improve agriculture and make it profitable to the farmers in the State at an interactive session with the FAO strategy teams in Rome on Tuesday.

Giving details of the steps taken by the SAD, as part of the Telangana Agricultural developments, in the interaction coordinated by Kakoli of FAO, Parthasarathi gave details of different schemes relating to agriculture, Horticulture and Marketing initiatives being implemented in the State. During his brief presentation, Parthasarathi presented the innovative schemes adopted by the SAD.

This includes the decentralised input supply, recruitment of AEOs provided with Tabs, farm mechanisation, micro-irrigation, the establishment of two Centres of Excellence for Horticulture crops, e-NAM and other marketing schemes and MSP support operations. Besides, he also highlighted the State government's flagship programmes Rythu Bandhu and Rythu Bima.

Impressed with the innovative agricultural developmental initiatives and welfare programmes taken up in Telangana the delegates expressed that there is a need to work together for benefit of the farmers across the globe to ensure food security, by sharing the best practices. In a meeting with Indian Embassy at Rome, in Italy, Parthasarathi and his team had a meeting with Indian Ambassador for Italy Reenat Sandhu, and Gloria Gangte, Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) along with their officials. During the interaction with the Embassy officials, the TS delegation discussed in detail on agriculture developmental activities in Telangana State.The Indian Ambassador thanked Parthasarathi for representing India in this important meeting in FAO and sharing all the developments of Telangana.

They expressed happiness that, Government of Telangana has presented Indian agriculture scenario at FAO on behalf of Government of India. They have shown a lot of interest in knowing the details of Infrastructural investments made for the long-term benefit of farmers such as major, medium irrigation projects, Kakatiya mission, Power sector and Warehousing (godowns).