Allot cotton, groundnut research centres for Telangana: Niranjan Reddy

Participating in the ICAR Regional Committee meeting through video conference here on Thursday, the Minister said Warangal will be the ideal place for setting up the cotton research centre

Hyderabad: Agriculture Minister Singireddy Niranjan Reddy has urged the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), an autonomous body responsible for coordinating agricultural education and research in the country, to set up groundnut, cotton and irrigation research coordination centres in the State.

Participating in the ICAR Regional Committee meeting through video conference here on Thursday, the Minister said Warangal will be the ideal place for setting up the cotton research centre because of the Telangana government’s initiative to increase productivity of the fibre crop, while Rajendranagar will be an ideal location for research in irrigation considering the increased irrigation potential in the State. Wanaparthy district which is the home to aflatoxin-less groundnut will be the right place for groundnut research centre. The Minister also sought the help of ICAR in setting up a research centre for improvement of mustard in Jagitiyal.

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The Minister informed the ICAR regional committee attended by Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, ICAR Director General Trilochana Mohapatra, principal secretary agriculture B Janardhan Reddy, and Vice Chancellor PJTSAU V Praveen Rao, that scientists must find ways to grow second crop of cotton with less irrigation requirement.

Giving a glimpse of the ongoing agricultural reforms in the State, he said the State was implementing a regulated cropping system in which the Agriculture University was playing a crucial role. He said that Telangana was adopting a demand driven farming model, based on the worldwide demand for various crops. “Our aim is to secure the best price for the yield produced by farmers in the State. Farmers must get good returns commensurate to the efforts they put in to produce the yield,” he said.

Listing out the various crops and their extent of cultivation in the State, he said that paddy was cultivated in 53 lakh acres, cotton in 60 lakh acres, red gram in 11 lakh acres, and other crops such as castor, maize, soybean and groundnut are also being cultivated. “In all 1.45 crore acres of land is under cultivation in Vaanakalam (Kharif) season. We will increase the acreage in the coming Yasangi (Rabi) ,” the Minister said, and informed the ICAR scientists that the State was encouraging oil palm cultivation in a big way.

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