Minister for Agriculture Tummala Nageswara Rao holds a meeting with agriculture department officials on Kharif preparedness in Hyderabad on Monday.
| Photo Credit: By Arrangement
Minister for Agriculture Tummala Nageswara Rao has asked officials of the department to prepare an action plan for the coming Kharif season by keeping ready the seed of green manure, seed of crops and fertilizers needed before the commencement of the season’s farming operations.
At a meeting with officials, the Minister said on Monday that the objective of the department should be making timely availability of all agricultural inputs till mandal level. He asked officials to prepare guidelines for the rain-fed crop cultivated in the season.
He instructed the authorities to provide video conferencing facilities in another 1,000 Rythu Vedikas by June 2, in addition to the one in every mandal where the facility was already enabled. The video conferencing facility in the Rythu Vedikas would be inaugurated by the Chief Minister.
The officials explained to the Minister that about 3.31 lakh tonnes of fertilizers were already available in the stock points. The Minister suggested them to get another 5 lakh tonnes of urea by the month-end. He faulted the Centre’s attitude of just announcing the minimum support price for crops and procuring only a couple of them, leaving the procurement of other crops to the State governments and burdening them financially.
Stating that he would write to the Centre requesting procurement of every crop for which MSP is fixed, the Minister told the officials to get the vigilance report on the complaints over cotton procurement.
The officials brought to the notice the pending dues of seed subsidy to the Telangana Seed Development Corporation — ₹220.8 crore for soybean, groundnut, pulses, paddy and others from 2016 to 2025 and another ₹87.57 crore for green manure seed from 2021 to 2024.
Published – May 12, 2025 08:49 PM is
