State Agricultural Commission to be set up

HYDERABAD: Chief minister N KIran Kumar Reddy on Monday suggested setting up of a state agricultural commission or a board to work as an advisory body on all the problems faced by farmers and other issues of agriculture including remunerative prices and marketing.To increase vegetable production and make vegetables available at affordable prices, a scheme will be implemented in periurban areas of Hyderabad ie, Rangareddy, Medak and Mahaboobnagar districts in an area of 1,500 hectares and with an outlay of `17 crore.The chief minister reviewed issues concerning agricultural operations with deputy chief minister Damodar Rajanarsimha, who is also in charge of agriculture, and other officials at the Secretariat.Officials informed the chief minister that due to deficit rainfall, the total area sown in the state is 32.51 lakh ha as against the as-ondate normal of 36.53 lakh hectares (89 pc) and 42 pc of the total 78.11 lakh ha during the season.The state government has already released an amount of `1,648.02 crore — `1,471.16 crore to small farmers/marginal farmers (SF/MF) and `176.86 crore to other farmers towards— input subsidy to the affected farmers due to various natural calamities occurred from the drought during the Kharif season of 2009 till the heavy rains in December 2010 covering 75,72,938 farmers and `618.47 crore was released towards input subsidy to the affected farmers due to heavy rains occurred during December last year.The officials told Reddy that as far as horticulture was concerned the oil palm area expansion programme covering 40,000 ha would be taken up with an outlay of `192 crore and components such as plant material, drip irrigation, electric pump-sets, bore wells, vermicompost and harvesting tools would be provided.Mini dairies will be established to augment milk production to exploit the genetic potentiality of high-pedigree milch animals with integrated approach.Dairy units will be established by providing five to ten milch animals on 25 pc subsidy and 6,000 units of dairies will be established with an outlay of `42.19 crore.