Development of crop colonies to achieve self-sufficicency in bangaru telangana
Highlights
Telangana State is having large areas under Paddy, Maize, Pulses and oilseeds like Soybean Castor and Groundnut with suitable soils and climatic conditions. It has been proposed to establish crop colonies under these crops with a view to expand area, increase production and productivity and to achieve self-sufficiency.
Telangana State is having large areas under Paddy, Maize, Pulses and oilseeds like Soybean Castor and Groundnut with suitable soils and climatic conditions. It has been proposed to establish crop colonies under these crops with a view to expand area, increase production and productivity and to achieve self-sufficiency.
Seeds are critical input for long term sustained growth in Agriculture. Timely availability of certified seed to farmers with good yield potential continues to be a major problem in the state.
In India only 20% of the farmers use certified seed and remaining 80% use farm saved seeds, where as in Telangana about 70%-80% farmers use certified seeds. It may be mentioned here that rain fed areas are vulnerable to high risk and seed systems have to be re-oriented towards meeting shortages on account of supply shortages. There should be assured availability of a second batch of seed to repeat sowing if the first sowing fails.
In case of long dry spells the State Seed System must be capable of providing seeds for contingency plan.
There is a great potential for seed production in Telangana. Hybrid Cotton Seed Production is primarily taken up in the districts of Mahabubnagar, Hybrid maize Seed production is taken up in Karimnagar, Nizamabad, and Medak districts. The Hybrid paddy seed is produced in Karimnagar and Warangal districts.
Similarly there are large areas under seed production of varieties of various crops like Paddy, Castor, Pulses, Groundnut, Soybean and vegetables in Karimnagar, Warangal, Nalgonda, Nizamabad, Mahabubnagar and Adilabad. Hence, it is proposed to establish crop colonies under these crops with a view to expanding area, increasing production and productivity to achieve self-sufficiency in seeds.
Agro Climate Zones of Telangana
Consumption of Fertilizers
• The consumption of fertilizers in 2014-15 is 19.40 lakh metric tonnes as on date in Telangana.
• Consumption of fertilizers by nutrients was the highest in 2010-11 at 14.81 lakh mts which has been falling there after to 13.39 lakh mts in 2013-14 and to 12.48 lakh mts in 2014-15.
• Per hectare consumption of fertilizers is highest for Karimnagar district and lowest for Medak district.
Farm Mechanization
Most of the farming is carried out on small holdings. Mechanization possibility is strongly influenced by the farm size, cost of farm labour, availability and suitability of machines and energy. The farming system continues to utilize manual power, animal power and tractor power. In order to bring more land under cul¬tivation and to improve productivity per unit area, the Government is promoting farm mechanization by en¬couraging machinery to be used from sowing to harvest, like power tractors, power tillers, including through the use of renewable energy.
Objectives of the Scheme
• Reduction of physical drudgery associated with various farm operations
• Making available the presence of mechanization in every village.
• Rise in Productivity level/ Net income per hectare.
• Helps in the protection of the produce and byproducts from qualitative and quantitative damages.
• Product quality improvement through use of Post harvest machinery/ improved processing methods
• Reduction in cost of cultivation for major crops grown in the State to be taken by pursuing these objectives with the view point that mechanization induced enhancement in productivity could be one of the important inputs to usher in all round development in the rural areas.
• An amount of Rs 100.00 crores is proposed to supply various farm implements i.e. Animal Drawn Implements, Tractor Drawn Implements, High Cost Machinery (Upto 1 lakh & 1 to 5 lakh), Rotovators, Harvesters, Taiwan Sprayers, Power Tillers, Mini Tractors, Post Harvest Equipment, Plant Protection Equipment, Inter cultivation Equipment and for establishment of Custom Hiring Centers for Paddy Land Preparation package.
• The subsidy proposed under Normal State Plan (NSP) is 50%.
Farm Mechanization - Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY)
• An amount of Rs 67.40 cores is proposed for establishment of Custom Hiring Centers for Paddy, Cotton, Maize, Groundnut, Sugarcane, Mini SMSRI.
• Paddy Nursery Package, Paddy Harvesting package, Post Harvest Items & Procurement Centers, Implement Hiring Stations, Tarpaulins, Solar fencing, Paddy reapers, Power Tillers, Seed cum ferti-drills, Maize Shellers, Multi Crop Threshers, Rotovators, Power Weeders, Improved farm machinery (4- Row walker type Paddy Transplanters, Paddy Threshers, Turmeric Boilers, Laser guided land leveler, Wet land leveler, Groundnut wet pod thresher, Combine Harvesters etc) and for organizing Trainings & Demonstrations and also for establishment of Solar pump sets.
• Out of total amount proposed, an amount of Rs 10.42 crores will be utilized for establishment of Solar Pump sets during 2014-15 @ Rs 1,00,000/- subsidy from the Department of Agriculture and 30% from New & Renewable Energy Development Ltd. (NRED).
• The remaining amount of Rs 56.98 crores was allocated and Rs 22.00 crores was released to all the districts. The subsidy approved by State Level Sanction Committee (SLSC) is 50% for all the components supplied under FM component of RKVY scheme.
Sub-Mission on AGRICULTURAL MECHANIZATION (SMAM).
• An amount of Rs 23.54 crores is proposed for supply of Mini Tractors, Power Tillers, Self Propelled machinery, Animal drawn implements, Tractor drawn implements, Plant protection equipment, establishment of Farm Machinery Banks for Custom Hiring Center up to Rs. 10 lakh to Rs. 25 lakh and for organizing trainings & demonstrations to farmers.
• Out of the total amount proposed, Rs 7.54 crores was already allocated to the districts for utilization towards above components. The subsidy pattern varies with the component and category (SC/ST/Women/SF/MF and other farmer) of farmer as per the SMAM guidelines communicated by Government of India.
Farm Mechanization- National Food Security Mission (NFSM)
• An amount of Rs 9.11 crores was allocated to districts towards supply of Cono weeder, Sprayer, Power weeder, Drum seeder, Seed drill, Paddy thresher, multi-crop thresher, Self Propelled Paddy Transplanter, Pumpsets, manual Winnowers, Assistance for Custom Hiring Centers i.e.Puddling with Rotavator, Ridge Furrow Planters @ 50% subsidy and towards labour charges for spraying with Taiwan Sprayers, Combine Harvester under NFSM Rice.
Extension
• The extension work at field level is suffering for want of staff and staff mobility. Despite this, agricultural growth has been supported by several extension support mechanisms that included farmers’ meets under Rythu Chaitanya Yatralu, Rythu Sadassulu, awards to the best performing farmers, agricultural technology management (ATMA), strategic research extension plan, strategic extension work plan, farmers’ schools,; periodic soil testing reports providing soil health cards to the farmers; extensive use of information and communication technology tools.
• Web based interventions like AGRISNET (http://agrisnet.tg.nic. in-Telugu);interactive services from the Agricultural University – Kisan call centres operated by the BSN-L,inter-active voice recorded system etc.; e-agrilabs to test the fertilizer and pesticide applications; Mee-Seva applications for farmers; farm mechanisation support system at the gram panchayats and capacity building of farmers for their effective use. Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, a flagship programme with 100 percent Central Government support is a major Extension initiative.
Agriculture Credit
• The Annual Credit Plan for 2014-15 was Rs.27233.59 crores for the Telangana towards Agriculture Credit, nearly Rs.17636.44 crores (65%) was disbursed under Agricultural credit.
• An amount of Rs.13,561 crores (72%) was disbursed under crop loans as against the target of Rs.18,717.95 crores and an amount of Rs. 2794.15crores (45%) was disbursed as against the target of Rs.6238.48 crores under Agriculture Term Loans and Rs.3,132.29 crore(137%) was disbursed as against the target of Rs.2,277.16 crore under Allied activities.
Crop Loan Waiver Scheme
• Farmers in the Telangana state have faced severe financial crisis due to frequent crop failures, lack of ade-quate support price, steep hike in input costs etc.
• To mitigate the plight of the farmers, the Telangana Gov¬ernment has decided to waive crop loans taken by the farmers up to Rs.1.00 Lakh per farmer.
• Agricultural loans on gold mortgage have also been included along with the interest. Government of Telangana released an amount of Rs. 4250.00 crores as first installment under Loan waiver scheme and the amount was credited into the bank accounts of over 34 lakh farmers.
Crop Insurance
Three Crop Insurance schemes have been implemented in Telangana State during Kharif & Rabi 2014-15 viz. National Agriculture Insurance Scheme (NAIS) -Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (WBCIS)- Modified National Agriculture Insurance scheme (MNAIS).
• National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS) was introduced from Kharif 2000 season onwards with involvement of Agriculture Department, Agriculture Insurance Co. (Implementing Agency) and Directorate of Economics and Statistics.
• Under the scheme, 19 crops were covered in Kharif and 10 crops in Rabi. 10 % of premium subsidy is al¬lowed to small and marginal farmers only under National Agriculture Insurance Scheme (NAIS).
Objectives
The scheme is aimed to provide a measure of financial support to the farmers in the event of yield loss recorded by conducting Crop Cutting Experiments.
• To restore the credit eligibility of a farmer after a crop failure for the next season.
• To encourage the farmers to adopt progressive farming practices, high value in-puts and higher technology in Agriculture.
• To help stabilize farm incomes, particularly in disaster years.
• During Kharif 19 crops covered and 10 crops in Rabi. 10 % of premium subsidy is allowed to small and marginal farmers only under National Agriculture Insurance Scheme (NAIS).
Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (WBCIS)
• For the benefit of farming community, apart from the “National Agricultural Insurance Scheme” (NAIS) for the first time in the State, the Government has implemented the “Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme” during Kharif 2009 season.
• The Scheme aims to mitigate the hardship of the insured farmers due to crop losses resulting from incidence of adverse deviations of weather parameters like rainfall, temperature, relative humidity etc.
Automatic Weather Stations (AWS)
• To measure the weather parameters “Automatic Weather Stations” (AWS) are established in all the mandals of the State at the rate of one per Mandal. Around 900 AWS are working in the State.
National Crop Insurance Programme (NCIP)
• For the benefit of the farming community the Government of India have issued orders to implement Na¬tional Crop Insurance Programme (NCIP) for Kharif 2014 onwards by merging MNAIS & WBCIS in the state which has many more farmer friendly features.
Modified National Agriculture Insurance Scheme (MNAIS)
• The Government of India introduced Modified National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (MNAIS) during Rabi 2010-11 on pilot basis in Warangal District which has many more farmer friendly features such as cover¬ing for localized calamities (hail storm), prevented sowings, coverage for major crops in the district, coverage on individual farmer basis with 40 to 75% subsidy in premium etc. Rice being a major crop, has been selected for implementation under the scheme, with village being the unit of implementation.
• The scheme is success¬fully under implementation and has been extended to all the districts in the State from Rabi 2014-15 season.
* Stay tune on 07-06-2015 for further topics on Agriculture.
G.Rajendera Kumar
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