Hyderabad, Sept.10 (Hydnow): Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy said their government was encouraging the farmers of the state to take up profit making oil palm cultivation in a big way. He made these remarks while replying to questions raised by the members of state Assembly during question hour in the ongoing monsoon session of the house.
Citing that the central government is spending ₹40,000 crore for the cultivation of palm oil trees, the Agriculture Minister said that they center had kept a target of the cultivation of the palm oil crop in 18 lakh hectares of the country. He said that the state government had intensified the process of the cultivation of the palm oil crop even before the decision of the central government on the issue. He said that they had taken up awareness programs to create awareness among the farmers of the state. He said that 25 districts of the state had suitable weather to take up the cultivation of the palm oil crop. He said that they had cultivated the crop inn 2500 hectares of land under national food security mission-oil palm scheme. He said that the central government had identified 3,29,000 hectares of the land to take up its cultivation and allowed the state government to take up its cultivation.
Speaking further, he said that the Chief Minister of the state was giving top priority to the agriculture sector of the state and added that the state would have a bright future with the income that it would generate through this sector. He said that various crops had been cultivated in 1.4 crore acres of land so far in the state this year and added that the crop cultivation worms were still going on in some places of the state while noting that the area of the cultivation is only going up every year. Reddy also told the house that the central government had procured 55 percent of its total food grains from the state this year.
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He stressed on the need to encourage crop change. He said that the CM of the state KCR had taken up the process of regularly farming this year and added that they had given priority to the cultivation of paddy and red gram. He said that they were encouraging the cultivation of the oil seeds in the state by recognising their demand. (Hydnow)