Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Wednesday, Oct 06, 2004
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Wednesday, Oct 06, 2004 |
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Agri-Biz & Commodities
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Agricultural Policy AP plans to promote apiculture in a big way Our Bureau
Hyderabad , Oct. 5 THE Government is examining the prospects of promoting apiculture as an alternative livelihood to the farming community in the State. It has invited Kashmiri Apiarists, a private firm engaged in the processing and export of honey, from Punjab in this regard. The State Minister for Agriculture, Mr N. Raghuveera Reddy, who attended a `Kisan Mela' at Punjab Agricultural University recently, said that AP, where sunflower is grown over a large area, was more suitable for apiculture. Like Punjab, which currently produces Rs 600 crore worth of honey every year, AP farmers could also take up bee keeping as a profitable activity. Mr Reddy had discussed the improved technologies and practices being adopted by the Punjab farmers with the heads of the departments of agriculture and allied activities and the scientists of the Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University (ANGRAU) at a meeting on Tuesday. He wanted officials and scientists to examine whether the farmers in the State could adopt the practices of their Punjab counterparts. At the meeting, it was also decided to conduct a study on possibility of providing value addition to various agricultural commodities, encouraging the farmers to go in for crop diversification, plugging the loopholes in the marketing of agricultural output and encouraging contract farming. The Minister told newspersons that a resolution was adopted at the meeting for the spreading the system of rice intensification (SRI) that would save water consumption by paddy crop to an extent of 30 per cent. ANGRAU has so far introduced SRI cultivation in 1,500 acres in Krishna, East Godavari and West Godavari districts. During the ensuing rabi season, the area under SRI cultivation would be increased by 10 times to 15,000 acres. A proposal was also mooted at the meeting for establishment of fodder banks in the drought-prone areas. Scarcity of fodder is a major problem in dryland areas and it has been decided to explore whether straw, which was being burnt in Punjab to a large extent, could be imported from the State in compressed form and stored in the proposed fodder godowns. Other decisions taken at the meeting included establishment of electronic weighing machines in all agricultural market yards, extension of cheap credit facilities to farmers for storing their produce in Government as well as identified private godowns so that they would not resort to distress sales, and multiplication of breeder seeds in farmers fields. Mr Reddy said that a decision was also taken to hold `Rythu Melas' every year, where all the latest developments pertaining to agriculture and allied activities would be displayed and agricultural experts would render guidance to farmers. "The departments pertaining to agriculture, horticulture, sericulture, fisheries, animal husbandry, co-operation, and marketing have been asked to work in co-ordination with each other."
More Stories on : Agricultural Policy | Andhra Pradesh
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