With the Gouravelli, Malkapet, and Baswapur projects to begin functioning soon and the Palamuru – Rangareddy project soon to be commissioned, the paddy production in Telangana will reach four crore tonnes, observed chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao.
While interacting with the officials on the flood situation, he pointed out that the farmers are upbeat about the improved irrigation system. They are striving to make the best use of the available resources by the state government. Mr KCR said it is time to focus on developing the food processing industry and setting up modern rice mills. An additional two crore tonnes of paddy will be available for milling in the state.
To finalise the guidelines for setting up food processing units, a committee is being constituted with the Finance Department special chief secretary Ramakrishna Rao. “We are already producing three crore tonnes of paddy. As the more irrigation projects are coming in handy, the produce is likely to go up to four crore tonnes thus making Telangana a number state in paddy production,” Mr Chandrashekhar Rao told the officials.
The state government has taken care of farmers from providing input subsidies to procurement of paddy. The lives of farmers are better now. If modern rice mills are established and food processing industries come up, they will benefit much more leading to economic empowerment of farm hands.
Ministers – T Harish Rao, G Kamalakar, G Jagadiswar Reddy, Srinivas Goud, Errabelli Dayakar Rao and Sabitha Indra Reddy, chief secretary A Shanti Kumari and several others were present.
By Gollapudi Srinivasa Rao