Vegetable cultivation on the decline in Sangareddy

The area under vegetable cultivation has been alarmingly going down in Sangareddy due to the spread of real estate ventures and lack of support from the State government.

Sangareddy: The area under vegetable cultivation has been alarmingly going down in Sangareddy due to the spread of real estate ventures and lack of support from the State government.

The area under vegetable cultivation in Sangareddy was nearly 40,000 acres in 2016. This has come down to 7,305 acres in 2023-24. The sharp decline in the area under cultivation of vegetables is fuelling the increase of vegetable prices. It is forcing the State to depend on imports from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharastra, and other parts of the country.

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Earlier, the State government used to extend subsidies on drip systems, mulching, seeds, pandals, shade nets, polyhouses, plastic boxes for packing, transportation vehicles, agriculture implements and many others. However, when the government stopped the subsidies, the investment in vegetable cultivation increased manifold.

Due to the burden of investment, many farmers stopped cultivating vegetable crops, according to District Horticulture Officer Sanagreddy P Someshwar Rao. Meanwhile, the fast-expanding real estate is also taking its toll on vegetable cultivation. The farmers of Gummadidala, Jinnaram, Hathnoora, Patancheru and Sangareddy used to cultivate vegetables because these parts of the district were located close to Hyderabad.

However, real estate companies bought a major part of lands in these parts of the district where multiple ventures were developed. A farmer from Gummadidala, Mohd Haneef, who has been in agriculture cultivation for the last two decades, demanded that the government introduce subsidies to support the vegetable farmers. Since the prices of seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, mulching, drip, and others increased, Haneef said farmers were fearing to take up cultivation. Many farmers, who were earlier into horticulture cultivation, were now giving up unable to bear the investment burden, he said.

The State government had given a subsidy for only 15 acres of pandal cultivation in Sangareddy district for this year while there was a huge demand for it. Under this scheme, the State government would give Rs.1 lakh as subsidy to farmers per acre. However, the scheme is restricted to only 15 acres this year.

FOR INFOGRAPHIC

Area under vegetable cultivation:

2019-20   17,764

2020-21   14,009

2021-22   12,501

2022-23   11,168

2023024   7305