The AgHub, an agriculture innovation hub, that opened on the campus of Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU) on Monday shall become a platform for innovative thinking among farmers as there is no better innovator than a farmer, Minister for Municipal Administration, IT and Industries K.T. Rama Rao has said.
Speaking after inaugurating the incubation centre along with Minister for Agriculture S. Niranjan Reddy and Minister for Education P. Sabita Indra Reddy, Mr. Rama Rao said the innovation hub should take the technology from lab to farm and help research in agriculture at primary level with the help of start-ups. He stated that all the 2,601 Rythu Vedikas in the State would be provided connectivity with high-speed Internet.
Stating that the challenge ahead was achieving nutritional food security, the Minister said the AgHub, to be functional in the hub-and-spoke model should help farmers adopt and adapt to the changing technology by making the knowledge available in the local language. It should also drive the farming community towards diversification in the cropping patterns, he hoped.
Telangana was the only State that was providing 24×7 uninterrupted free power to agriculture, improved irrigation facilities, investment support of ₹10,000 acre per year under Rythu Bandhu and free life insurance cover under Rythu Bima, Mr. Rama Rao said. However, the Centre’s promise of doubling the farmers’ income was far from reality, he pointed out.
Minister for Agriculture Mr. Niranjan Reddy said Telangana government was spending about ₹60,000 crore on agriculture and allied sectors and it was time the farming community focused on increasing the productivity along with the production. Citing an example of how Spain was leading in the export of fruits and vegetables with their cultivation only in 1.5 lakh acres, the Minister said innovations would help lead farming in Telangana in that direction.
Stating that Telangana was known for producing aflatoxin-free groundnut, he wished the State to surpass Argentina in the oilseed crop production, Mr. Reddy said Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao would lay the foundation stone for groundnut research station at Wanaparthy soon. The government had earmarked ₹100 crore for agricultural research this year, he noted.
Chairman of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) Govindarajulu Chintala said they had funded seven agriculture incubators in the country so far and hoped that the AgHub here would combine research and technology to double the farmers’ income. Vice-Chancellor of PJTSAU V. Praveen Rao explained about the incubation centre.
Chevella MP G. Ranjith Reddy, MLAs T. Prakash Goud, D. Sudheer Reddy, M. Kishan Reddy, M. Sanjay Kumar, Zilla Parishad Chairperson of Rangareddy Anita Harinath Reddy, Secretary (Agriculture) M. Raghunandan Rao and others participated in the event.
Published - August 30, 2021 10:13 pm IST
