Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao said that the state government would deposit Rs 5,000 per acre in farmers' bank accounts during the forthcoming kharif season from June 15 to 25.
Despite the state government's revenue earnings being hit hard by the Corona-induced financial crisis, Rao said the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government was committed to the welfare of farmers and will continue Rythu Bandhu as usual.
For the kharif season, he added, about Rs 7,300 crore would be placed in the bank accounts of around 61 lakh farmers. He told the officials that they had until June 10 to cover all qualified farmers who owned land.
At Pragathi Bhavan, the Chief Minister conducted an agriculture review meeting with Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy and senior officials. In the last seven years of the TRS administration, he claimed, the agriculture industry has experienced remarkable growth.
"From an arid state in 2014, when Telangana was founded, 75% of the tanks and reservoirs are now full with water, even in the heat, thanks to new irrigation projects and the state government's Mission Kakatiya."
In terms of agricultural production, Telangana is only second to Punjab in the country. "The day is not far off when we will surpass Punjab and become the country's number one state," the Chief Minister said. He told staff to keep the necessary seeds, fertilizers, and insecticides on hand for the kharif season because the monsoon is expected to be abundant.
He urged the police, intelligence, and agriculture officials to crack down on individuals selling phony seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides, and to bring them to justice under the PD Act (Preventive Detention).
In addition, the Chief Minister instructed officials to strictly adopt QR codes for seeds and a seed traceability system during the kharif season. Farmers may analyze and learn about the quality and legitimacy of seeds by scanning the QR code with their mobile phones.
The location of manufacture, time and manufacturer details, processing and packing locations, seed quality testing results, tests date, and expiry details are all displayed on the screen as soon as the QR code is checked.
If necessary, the Chief Minister asked Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar to issue an ordinance to check for counterfeit seeds and fertilizers. He advised farm officials against collaborating with seed smugglers. If detected, such officials will not only be fired from their jobs, but will also be sentenced to ten years in prison, he stated.
