Hyderabad, A Hyderabad based Agri consulting company, RAY Consulting organized an Agri-Business Summit at Park Hyatt here on Thursday.
Telangana Agriculture Minister Singireddy Niranjan Reddy who was supposed to attend could not make it to the program as he was with Chief Minister in Delhi. So he sent a message.
In his message, he said farmers need innovative products, methods. Together we all play a crucial role in this journey to enable innovations in the Agri Sector. Research and Extension plays a central role in Innovation he said
Speaking further the Minister added that building an agricultural ecosystem is very important to the overall ecosystem. We in Telangana is witnessing a Golden Age in Agriculture. Farm innovations, Smart Poultry, Smart Agriculture, seamless growth in land farming he said.
The need of the hour is to produce more with less natural resources. Netherlands, Spain, Israel like many tiny countries have demonstrated how they could excel in Agriculture. The top priority for Telangana Government is Agriculture, the Minister said.
The government is giving special importance to setting up food processing zones. He urged the companies to come forward and set up Food Processing units in the state.
Raghunandan Rao, APC & Secretary to Government Agri & Coop Dept, Govt of Telangana said for the government in the last 7 years Agriculture remained the focus of its activity. Telangana is the only state to provide 24 hours power supply to all the sectors. Perhaps it is the first state to provide investment and input assistance to every farmer twice a year at the beginning of the crop season.
Rs 40,000 crore assistance was extended under this scheme so far. It is the only state which has fully functional farmers’ insurance. As a result of these efforts, there is a growth of 40 per cent cultivated area in the last 7 years. Huge investments have gone into irrigation.
Farm Mechanisation has also gone up which is evident from the fact that agri tractors have gone up by 125 per cent. The Warehousing capacities have also gone up. Telangana is probably the only state to have fully trained agriculture graduates available to every 5000 acres of cultivable land.
Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, Govt of Telangana highlighted the various efforts put in by the government to promote agri-food processing centres in the state and urged Agri entrepreneurs to utilise the opportunity thrown open by the government.
Earlier, in his welcome address, Mr Raj Kumar Agarwal, Founder & Managing Partner of Ray Consulting informed that Who is who of the Agri sector have participated in the one full day, annual calendar event “Agri-Business Summit and Agri Awards ABSA 2021”.