Agriculture not a profession but way of life: Niranjan Reddy

Hyderabad: Agriculture is not a profession, but a way of life and the governments must take measures to support farmers who are feeding the nation, said Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy. He exuded confidence that India will emerge as the food bowl of the world over the next two decades and wanted youth to take […]

Hyderabad: Agriculture is not a profession, but a way of life and the governments must take measures to support farmers who are feeding the nation, said Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy. He exuded confidence that India will emerge as the food bowl of the world over the next two decades and wanted youth to take up farming aggressively to feed the world.

Speaking at the 27th annual meeting of Seedsmen Association at Red Hills on Thursday, Niranjan Reddy said the Telangana government took various initiatives to encourage farming and the State has emerged as Rice Bowl of India meeting the food needs of the nation. “Telangana is not only feeding the country, but also nearly 20 other nations by exporting seeds manufactured here. We are making efforts to export seeds to more countries,” he said. There are about seven lakh seed producing farmers in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

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On the occasion, the Minister lambasted the Central government over its failure to focus on increasing the seed and agricultural production. He said the Centre lacks a policy on import and export of agricultural products where it was imposing numerous restrictions on exports, but relaxing norms on imports. “We must utilise our potential in seed and agricultural production. Farmers should be encouraged to adopt modern techniques in food production, while scientists should change their orientation to increase the yield. The State government is ready to support them,” he added.

Due to the proactive decisions of the Telangana government, the agriculture and the seed production sectors could survive during the Covid-19 pandemic, said other speakers at the annual meeting of Seedsmen Association.