Nalgonda: Agriculture minister Tummala Nageswara Rao on Saturday urged famers to use new farming methods to increase farm yield with lower investment. He urged farmers to not take up paddy cultivation under lift irrigation schemes and instead switch over to commercial crops. They can get Rs 1 lakh profit per acre if they took up cultivation of oil palm, he said. Nageswara Rao was speaking after inaugurating an agriculture show conducted on NG College grounds here by a YouTube channel. State Legislative Council chairman Gutha Sukhender Reddy and roads minister Venkat Reddy attended the event. Nageswara Rao directed district collector C. Narayana Reddy to identify and sanction land for setting up of an oil palm factory and create a marketing facility for the cultivators. He pointed out that engineering graduates and software engineers are leaving their jobs and entering agriculture as income from agriculture was now more than their salaries with the advent of new cropping technologies. On the crop loan waiver, Nageswara Rao said farmers who had crop loans of Rs 2.5 lakh would also get a Rs 2 lakh waiver, if they repaid the remaining Rs 50,000. It was identified that there are 12,000 such farmers in the state. He said crop loan amount was credited to bank accounts of some farmers due to technical and documents issues. Nodal officers would be posted at agriculture offices and banks to solve technical problems to credit the amount to their bank accounts. Sukender Reddy said farmers can overcome the shortage of labour by utilizing innovations. He suggested farmers take up cultivation of alternative crops to earn more profit. Nalgonda MP Kunduru Raghuveer Reddy, Miryalaguda MLA K. Laxma Reddy, Nakrekal MLA Vemula Veeresham and Rythu Badi YouTube channel owner J Rajender Reddy attended the programme.
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