Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao to allot special agriculture budget from 2018

Hyderabad: Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao has decided to introduce a special budget for agriculture from next year and to substantially enhance the funds for the farming sector. [caption id=“attachment_3478615” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of K Chandrasekar Rao. AFP[/caption] The chief minister also announced that 2,500 clusters with one cluster for every 5,000 acres will be set up across the state and in every cluster, dais will be constructed for the farmers to interact, an official release said on Sunday. KCR, who had held an extended high-level review meeting on farmers’ welfare and agriculture development on Saturday, instructed officials that the farmers should be educated about the power of unity and the farmers’ association should be formed from the village to state level to forge an alliance with other farmers. The chief minister decided to have training programmes also for the farmers from the village to state level with new, modern scientific techniques and practices. He said there is a need to expand the agriculture ministry as more than two-thirds of the population is depending on agriculture in the state. “If need be services of retired officers and scientists should be utilised and the ministry should be reorganised,” Rao said. “Under the united Andhra Pradesh, Telangana farmers were deceived and they were distressed for irrigation water. Hence, we have focused on agriculture and the irrigation sectors and we are getting the results. “We have begun executing various projects to supply water to one crore acres. Under ‘Mission Kakatiya,’ we are reviving the tanks. We are providing quality nine hours power supply to the farmers and we will provide 24-hour power supply in future,” added Rao.