Mancherial: Collector Badavath Santosh has asked officials to promote horticulture crops by coordinating with their counterparts of various departments. He along with District Rural Development Officer B Sheshadri and District Agriculture Officer Kalpana convened a review meeting with mandal horticulture, parishad development, panchayat officers, technical assistants and engineering consultants here on Wednesday.
Santosh told the officials concerned to encourage farmers who own below 5 acres of land and had irrigation facilities to grow horticulture crops. He said that farmers from SC and ST communities were eligible to get subsidy, while others could avail subsidy by 90 percent. He said that saplings of mango, custard apple, sweet orange, guava, chikoo, cashew and dragon fruit would be supplied to the growers.
The Collector instructed the officials to achieve a target of 1,467 acres of area of cultivation of horticulture set for the district. He stated that a micro drip irrigation system would be installed in the fields under the micro drip irrigation scheme. Process of pitting and planting begins once beneficiaries are selected.
He further asked the officials to encourage farmers, who own above 5 acres to raise oil palm trees and to achieve the target of 3,400 acres of area of cultivation given to the district.