PNS|Hyderabad
Agriculture Minister Tummala Nageshwara Rao appealed to the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shivaraj Singh Chauhan, that the Coconut Development Board’s regional office should be established at Bhadradri Kothagudem.
He also asked the Union Minister to empanel oil palm seed suppliers, and the MSP of oil palm seeds supplied to oil palm farmers should be fixed at Rs 25,000.
The Central decision to reduce the import duty on palm oil should be reviewed, and funds must be sanctioned to the Horticulture University, he said.
The Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Minister of State Bhagirath Chaudhary are on a visit to Telangana.
Tummala said that coconut is cultivated on 3,300 acres in Telangana and that Bhadradri Kothagudem (1,757 acres) and Khammam (696 acres) districts together account for about 75% of this.
He said that there are opportunities to expand coconut cultivation in other districts of the state as well, and that earlier the Coconut Board office was in Hyderabad, but after the bifurcation, it was shifted to Vijayawada.
Due to this, the Minister said that TG coconut farmers are not getting timely services. The coconut farmers and their associations and FPOs in Bhadradri and Khammam districts are demanding the establishment of a separate office of the Coconut Development Board.
Tummala wrote a letter to the Union Minister requesting that a full-fledged Coconut Development Board Regional Office should be established in Aswaraopet or Dammapeta.
He said that Telangana has set a target to cultivate oil palm on 1.25 lakh hectares under the National Mission on Edible Oils — Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) launched by the Centre, and has so far cultivated 75,000 hectares, standing first in the country.
He said that quality oil palm seeds are the key to achieving this target, and as sufficient seeds are not available domestically, oil palm companies are importing seeds from abroad. However, he said that there is no information about suppliers who provide quality seeds.
Tummala urged the Union Agriculture Minister to review the Centre’s decision to reduce the duty on crude palm oil imports. The TG Government had requested the Centre to increase the import duty on palm oil from 27.5% to 40% to help domestic oil palm farmers, he said and added that the Centre’s decision to reduce import duty was disturbing.
This will reduce the price of palm oil and will seriously affect domestic oil palm cultivation in the long run, he said.
Tummala said the Centre had promised to establish a Horticulture University in Telangana as per the 13th Schedule of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act (2014).
He said that a project report with a budget of Rs 1,823.20 crore has been submitted for this, but only Rs 135 crore has been released so far.
Tummala told the Union Minister that at present this university is functioning with minimum facilities and releasing the remaining funds is essential to provide full-fledged education, research and extension services.
