Zaheerabad leads Telangana in crop diversity with 130+ varieties
Zaheerabad farmers in Telangana showcase remarkable crop diversity, cultivating over 130 varieties including fruits, vegetables, pulses, oilseeds, flowers, and agro-forestry plants. Despite successes like GI-tagged colocasia and famed guava, they seek stronger government support for seeds, marketing, and storage to sustain innovation
Sangareddy: While the successive governments had found it difficult to divert the farmers from the traditional cotton and paddy cultivation to make the agriculture diverse in Telangana, the farmers of Zaheerabad had found a way to earn profitable income by cultivating alternative agriculture crops particularly horticulture crops such as fruits, spices, vegetables and flowers.
Farmers here would also cultivate a variety of millets, oil seeds and agro forestry plants. The agriculture practices the farmers of Zaheerabad had adopted would surprise many since farmers in the division were cultivating over 130 varieties of crops.
From Chia to Apple, sweet corn to sugarcane, safflower to soybean, dates to avocado, cashew nut to coconut, ginger to ajwain, beans to carrot, the farmers of Zaheerabad are known for trying their hands on any crop.
Though farmers here had cultivated many other varieties in small extents, the agriculture and horticulture department could not record them. The farmers of this area had cultivated 40 varieties of vegetables including leafy vegetables during the 2025-2026 year and 26 varieties of fruits.
They had cultivated eight varieties of oil seeds, six varieties of pulses, five varieties of coarse grains, five varieties of commercial crops, six varieties of flowers and eight varieties of agro forestry plants apart from many other varieties.
Speaking to Telangana Today, a young farmer from Ranzole village, Basavanthpur Ramesh Reddy, who was known for cultivating a number of varieties of dragon fruit, said that farmers of Zaheerabad had the cultivation of diverse crops in their blood. Since olden days, he said that farmers of this area had tried many varieties since the fertile soil here would help the farmers to get a good yield.
Standing an example for their reputation, Sajjapur Chamagadda (Colocasia) in Kohir mandal is all set to get the GI tag while the Kohir Jama (Guava) is also well-known for its taste in Hyderabad, and neighbouring Karnataka and Maharastra state. Even some farmers in Mogudampally mandal had attempted to produce geranium oil which they had exported to Mumbai.
District Agriculture Officer (DAO), K Shiva Prasad called upon the farmers from other parts of the State to draw inspiration from farmers of Zaheerabad to cultivate diverse crops to restrict the imports from other states and meet the needs of the State.
Even former Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao had learned a few tips from farmers of Zaheerabad when he took up cultivation of potato in his field. He even hosted the farmers from this area over a lunch when he was Chief Minister.
Agriculture Extension Officer, Pradeep Kumar said that they will take students of agriculture, and horticulture to field visits to Zaheerabad, Kohir, Jharasangam, Mogudampally and Nyalkal where they would gain rich experience by examining diverse agriculture practices.
However, the farmers of Zaheerabad observed that they were lacking any proper support from the State government in purchasing seeds, marketing harvest, and storing them. Since the farmers here were willing to take the risk of cultivating new crops, the farmers urged the government to extend all the support to them, to get the desired results. Later, the government can replicate the same model in other parts of the State.
Deccan Development Society (DDS) has played a key role in protecting some rare and ancient crops in Zaheerabad and encouraged the women of the area to continue cultivating millets, pulses, leafy vegetables and several other traditional crops.
During the seed exhibition conducted every year by DDS, women from the Zaheerabad area display nearly 70 varieties of rare seeds that have almost disappeared from traditional cultivation. DDS was founded by late PV Satheesh around 43 years ago.
DDS has also been conducting Patha Pantala Jathara (Mobile Bio-diversity Festival) every year in January to encourage farmers to cultivate these crops. It has also been organising an exhibition of uncultivated leafy vegetables found in forests and agricultural fields every year to educate people on the need to include them in their diet.
