Telangana Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao on Friday demanded that the rules pertaining to crop insurance should be amended to suit the requirements of farmers.
Speaking to media persons after participating in the State Credit Seminar here, Harish Rao said that the present slabs of crop loans by the banks need to be revised. He said even the banks have no clarity on how much loan is required for a particular crop. Consequently, the farmers take loans from multiple banks, agencies or even private money lender and incur heavy losses in cases of crop failures. Further, the crop insurance should cover maximum losses. Therefore, he said all the rules pertaining to crop insurances should be reviewed and amended.
Harish said that the NABARD should appoint experts in disbursement of loans. He also stressed the need for give major boost to Mission Kakatiya. Since major irrigation needs huge function, he said that the State Government first focused on minor and medium irrigation so as to make nearly 265 TMC of water available for irrigation through Mission Kakatiya. He said nearly 9,000 lakes are proposed to be restored in the next one year.
The minister said that the government has been making efforts to make Telangana a drought-free State or at least the irrigation would not be totally dependent on seasonal conditions. He said the Rythu Bandhu scheme would be strengthened to provide up to Rs 2 lakh interest free loans to farmers for a period of 180 days. He said the NABARD has agreed to fund modernisation of godowns with cumulative capacity of 21 lakh metric tonnes in six districts of Telangana. He said that only 25 per cent of demand for vegetables in Hyderabad is being met from Telangana. The remaining 75 per cent of vegetables are being mobilised from other neighbouring States. Therefore, efforts are on to produce maximum vegetables within the State through Green Cultivation Scheme.
Further, Harish Rao said that farmers are being encouraged to take up fisheries, dairy or poultry as an alternate in case of crop failures. (INN)