HYDERABAD: For the first two years after the State formation, Telangana witnessed a drastic decline in agricultural output. The agricultural output of the State suffered a massive decline of Rs 8,170 crore in 2015-16 when compared to 2011-12, before the State formation. In 2014-15 alone, it suffered a loss of Rs 3,313 crore. Though officials rightly point out that this is primarily due to the drought conditions in those two years, questions are being raised if the water crisis was managed efficiently.
As per a recent report released by the Centre, titled: Estimates of value of output from agricultural and allied sectors, the estimated value of agricultural output from Telangana in 2011-12 was Rs 37,908 crore. Then, it declined to Rs 34,595 crore in 2014-15 and to Rs 29,738 crore in 2015-16.
In the following years the State’s output saw a robust growth. In 2016-17, it grew to Rs 43,338 crore and in 2017-18 it stood at Rs 45,888 crore. However, according to numbers, Telangana suffered the highest fall in output. Even States that faced a much worse drought during the same period did not face this much losses. For instance, our State suffered only 70 per cent drought whereas more than 90 per cent area in Karnataka, Chattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh were hit those two years.
However, while Telangana suffered decline worth Rs 8,170 crore in 2015-16, Karnataka suffered a decline of just Rs 2,161 crores and Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh witnessed an increase in productivity by Rs 2,306 crore and Rs 2,464 crore respectively. It may be mentioned here that as per data, Telangana witnessed suicides by 898, 1358 and 632 farmers respectively in the years 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively.