Telangana doubles agri output in 7 years
India's youngest state Telangana has achieved the turnaround in agriculture by almost doubling the agriculture production and the area under cultivation during last seven years.
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Hyderabad: India's youngest state Telangana has achieved the turnaround in agriculture by almost doubling the agriculture production and the area under cultivation during last seven years.
Officials say this could be possible due to completion of several irrigation projects, revival of tanks, 24X7 free power to farmers and Rs 10,000 financial assistance to farmers towards input costs per acre annually.
In 2014, when Telangana was carved out of Andhra Pradesh, the area under cultivation in Telangana was 1.41 crore. The same has now gone up to 2.10 crore acres during the combined period of Vaanakalam (Kharif) and Yasangi (Rabi) seasons.
The agriculture yield has doubled from 2.05 crore tonne to 4.11 crore tonne during the same period.
According to official figures, Paddy was cultivated in 34.97 lakh acres in 2013-14, and this has gone to 1.04 crore acres in 2020-21. The procurement of paddy by the government has gone up from 24.30 lakh tonnes in 2014 to 1.11 crore tonnes last year.
The State government claims that state has become rice bowl of the country. The fact was highlighted during Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan's customary address to the joint session of both the houses of state legislature on Monday, the first day of the budget session. She said Telangana has become Annapurna or food provider to the country.
Last summer, the Food Corporation of India (FCI) procured 1.15 crore tonnes of paddy all over the country. Of this, 64 lakh tonnes, that is about 56 per cent was procured from Telangana alone, Paddy production during Vaanakalam was around 1.3 crore tonnes and during Yasangi it is expected to be 1.25 crore tonne, the highest for any state in the country during Rabi season. Thus the paddy production for the year is estimated to be 2.55 crore tonnes.
