Rama Krishna Sangem
Telangana has become Annapurna for the country, thanks to Chief Minister K.Chandrashekar Rao’s focus on farmer welfare, water supply and grain purchase. – Cultivated area increased from 1.31 crore to 2.20 crore acres in just 9 years. – Government spent Rs.1.59 lakhs crore on irrigation projects.
Restoration and strengthening of chain link ponds, tanks at a cost of Rs 5249 crore under Mission Kakatiya. – Grain yield was only 68 lakh MT in 2014 and now it is increased to 2.7 crore metric tonnes.
Telangana government supports the farmers with the implementation of farmer friendly schemes like free electricity for agriculture, grain purchase, Rythu Bandhu, Rythu Bhima and loan waiver. With the formation of Telangana, the farmers problems were solved.
Once barren lands are now full of water and lush greens. Being the leader of the movement and a farmer himself KCR after becoming the Chief Minister, the golden era in the agricultural sector of Telangana began. Realizing the discrimination and hardships of the Telangana farmers, he believed that the only solution for the revival of the agricultural sector was to provide irrigation facilities .
Godavari, Krishna waters utlized
To fully utilize Godavari and Krishna waters, projects such as SRSP flood canal which was left incomplete and Kaleswaram, Palamuru-Ranga Reddy huge irrigation projects were undertaken. The government has spent Rs.1.59 lakh crores in 9 years for the construction of irrigation projects. The Kaleshwaram project was completed in record time. Rs 5249 crore was spent under Mission Kakatiya to restore the chain linked ponds of the Kakatiya era.
With the attention shown by Govt Cultivated area in 2014 was 1.31 lakh crore acres and by 2022-23 it is 2 crore 20 lakh acres and in 2014-15 grain production was only 68 lakh tonnes, but by 2022-23 it has reached a record level of about 2.70 crore tonnes. – In 2014-15 the area under cotton cultivation was 41.83 lakh acres, by 2020-21 (44.70 % growth) increased by 18.70 lakh acres to 60.53 lakh acres.
Cotton yield was 35.83 lakh bales in 2014-15 and 63.97 lakh bales by 2020-22 . Telangana is also the only state that directly buys all the harvested grain from the farmers. Since the formation of the state till date Rs. 1 lakh 33 thousand crores spent and 722.92 lakh metric tons of grain was collected. Apart from grain, other crops were purchased at a cost of Rs.11,437.55 crores.
The government is providing free quality electricity to agriculture for 24 hours. Free electricity supply to 27.49 lakh agricultural connections. Accordingly, Rs.32,700 crores have been spent and electricity infrastructure has been expanded.Per year Rs.10,500 crore is being paid for free electricity supply.
Rythu Bandhu comes in handy
The Rythu Bandhu scheme is being implemented to protect the farmers from the clutches of moneylenders. Through the Rythu bandhu scheme, Rs. 10 thousand per acre per year has been deposited. In the last 10 phases an amount of Rs. 65,190 crores has been deposited in farmer accounts. As part of 11 th phase rythu bandu in this rainy season Rs.5854.16 crore has been provided to 64.49 lakh farmers covering about 117.08 lakh acres.
To free the farmers from the burden of debt, the government is implementing the farmer loan waiver. So far, it has waived off Rs.17,351.47 crore in two installments. The government has recently sanctioned Rs 18,000 crore funds to waive off loans up to Rs 1 lakh. The government is implementing Rythu Bima to support the family of the farmer who died suddenly. 108051 farmer families were benefitted under Rythu Bima Insurance scheme , compensation amount of Rs.5402.55 crore has been paid.
In 2014-15 there were only 94,537 agricultural tractors were there but now they were increased to 3.52 lakhs. Harvesters have increased to 19,309 from 6,318 in 2014-15.After the formation of the state , the government has waived off Rs 273.5 crores transport tax on tractors. And also an amount of Rs.41.6 crores pending tax is waived.
Capacity of godowns in 2014-15 was 39.01 lakh MT , now it has increased to 73.82 lakh MT. – 196 Agricultural market committee Chairman posts are filled up following rule of reservation. – Market research and analysis wing has been set up, to advise farmers On what crops are to be planted for next season.
Through micro irrigation, 3.10 lakh farmers have been benefitted with a subsidy of Rs2186.14 crores.With a subsidy of Rs 291.66 crores, 1190 poly houses were developed in 1324 cres.Rs.1490.15 crores input subsidy is paid as crop damage. State share in crop insurance is Rs. 909.55 crores (from 2014-15 to 2019-20).
