Measures apace to set up crop colonies

Siddipet: The State government is actively gearing up for development of crop colonies.

As part of it, the agriculture department has ordered a survey of farmers and this report is required be submitted by the end of April.

In the next two days, the district authorities will swing into action to take this process.

They will collect vital information about the crops cultivated in 5.6 lakh acres belong to 2.71 lakh farmers.

Telangana State has large areas under Paddy, Maize, Pulses and oilseeds like Soybean Castor and Groundnut with suitable soils and climatic conditions.

It has been proposed to establish crop colonies under these crops with a view to expanding area, increase production and productivity and to achieve self-sufficiency.

Seeds are critical input for long term sustained growth in Agriculture. Timely availability of certified seed to farmers with good yield potential continues to be a major problem in the state.

There is a great potential for seed production in Telangana.

Hybrid Cotton Seed Production is primarily taken up in the districts of Mahbubnagar, Hybrid maize Seed production is taken up in Karimnagar, Nizamabad, and Medak districts.

The Hybrid paddy seed is produced in Karimnagar and Warangal districts.

Similarly, there are large areas under seed production of varieties of various crops like Paddy, Castor, Pulses, Groundnut, Soybean and vegetables in Karimnagar, Warangal, Nalgonda, Nizamabad, Mahbubnagar and Adilabad.

Hence, it is proposed to establish crop colonies under these crops with a view to expanding area, increasing production and productivity to achieve self-sufficiency in seeds.

The idea is to provide hybrid seeds, free distribution of plants, drip systems and sprinklers for irrigation, for crop colonies.

This apart, the government has plans to set up establish food processing units and special vegetable markets connecting these crop colonies that help farmers and consumers to avoid middlemen.

After cleansing of land records, there are 2.71 lakh farmers are in the district, cultivating a total of 5.6 lakh acres of land.

The size of cultivated land is expected to increase after the purging process. Based on the information available so far, the government is preparing a survey of farmers.

Recently, the Principal Secretary of the Department of Agriculture has directed in a video conference regarding this matter to the officials of the districts.

A total of 111 AWOs in the district will take up a survey on 39 subjects and then incorporate into the prescribed website.

Based on land clearing grounds, 13 items at CCLA will be placed in the farmer's portal.

This information is being arranged to look for officials in the districts. Officials need to download all these details.

The number of Aadhaar card, the name of the book holder, the name of the. father / the husband, the gender, the date of birth, the number of the bank, the branch name, the IFSC code, the social status, the total area etc. information should be downloaded by AEOs.

This is considered as part-A.

Agriculture extension authorities will have to collect information on 26 items in the Part-B.

They have to visit the farmers and enter the details like such as education, irrigated area, irrigation facilities, whether received soil sample document under micro irrigation, type of soil, which crops were cultivated in 2018 Kharif etc.

Details will be collected and uploaded online.