HYDERABAD: Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy on Saturday said that while the Green Revolution was born out of the necessity to feed the country, in Telangana, farming itself has become a revolution. His message to critics who didn’t approve of the State government’s efforts vis-a-vis the farming sector was clear - not appreciating the achievements was also a form of slavery.
Addressing a gathering at the Prof Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU) as part of the ‘Farmers Day’ on Saturday, Niranjan said that `4.50 lakh crore was spent on agriculture and allied fields in the last nine years, and that Telangana was the only State in the world to implement schemes like Rythu Bandhu and Rythu Bima.
Claiming that 2.5 crore population of Telangana was dependent either directly or indirectly on agriculture, he said that such transformation was only possible because governance was focused on farming.
“Birds thought to have gone extinct are being seen at the irrigation tanks and local streams. Telangana which had shed tears and sacrificed lives for a drop of water, is now brimming with water,” he observed.
The Minister said that the earlier governments had created an impression by 2000 that farming was useless, and officials and governments had kept electricity and irrigation inaccessible to farmers.
He revealed that he wanted to pursue his education in agricultural science, but due to various reasons, it was not possible. He said he was fortunate to be heading the agriculture department now after playing his role in the Telangana movement.