AGRICULTURE

Brief Introduction:

Wanaparthy District was formed and operated from 10-10-2016 as per the State Govt. of Telangana orders. Wanaparthy district is located between 16° 36’ latitude and 78° 06’ longitude. The district consists of 1 ADA ® Division with 14 Mandals, 71 Clusters, and 224 Villages. Agriculture is the main occupation of the people in the district. About 75% of the total workers are engaged in agriculture. The main crops grown in the district are Paddy, Groundnut, Jowar, Maize, Red gram, Castor, Cotton, and Chilies.  A total area of 250002 Acres has been cultivated during Vanakalam 2021 and 135409 Acres has been cultivated during Yasangi 2021-22 under different crops.

Soils: Major portion of the land is covered by Red sandy and Sandy loam Soils (89%) which have got the characteristic feature of less water retentive capacity, and most of the rainwater goes as runoff.

The district has got 3 types of soils viz.

•                      Red Sandy Soils                         47 %   (52859 Ha)
•                      Sandy loam Soils                       42 %   (47326 Ha)
•                      Black Cotton Soils                     11 %   (13475 Ha)

Agro-Climatic Situation:

The district comes under Southern Telangana Zone:

Rainfall: Normal Rainfall of the district is 579.60 mm per Year.

Schemes & Activities in the Department of Agriculture, Wanaparthy District, TS.

1. Rythu Bandhu Scheme (AISS):

Telangana Government has proposed a new scheme for providing investment support to Agriculture and Horticulture crops by way of a grant @ Rs.5000/- per Acre per Farmer in each season (Kharif & Rabi) for the purchase of inputs like Seeds, Fertilizers, Pesticides, towards Labour and other Investments in the field operations of farmers choice for the crop season.

2. Rythu Bhima (Farmers Group Life Insurance Scheme):

Telangana Government decided to implement the prestigious scheme of “Rythu Bandhu Group Life Insurance Scheme for Farmers” for the welfare of the farming community in the State. The main objective of the scheme is to provide immediate and adequate financial relief to bereaved family members/dependents of the farmer in case of his/her death due to any reason. The majority of the farmers are small and marginal farmers and farming is the sole source of livelihood to them. In the event of the death of the bread earner, the dependent family members will land in distress due to financial problems. The sum assured is Rs 5,00,000/- payable to the Nominee designated by the insured farmer.

3. PM KISAN:

Scheme Objective & Benefits:

With a view to providing income support to all landholding farmers’ families in the country, having cultivable land, the Central Government has implemented a Central Sector Scheme, namely, “Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN)”. The scheme aims to supplement the financial needs of all landholding farmers’ families in procuring various inputs to ensure proper crop health and appropriate yields, commensurate with the anticipated farm income as well as for domestic needs. Under the Scheme, an amount of Rs.6000/- per year (in 3 installments) is released by the Central Government online directly into the bank accounts of the eligible farmers under Direct Benefit Transfer mode, subject to certain exclusions.

Exclusions:

The following categories of beneficiaries of higher economic status shall not be eligible for benefits under the scheme:

(a) All Institutional Land holders; and

(b) Farmer families in which one or more of its members belong to the following categories :

•  Former and present holders of constitutional posts
• Former and present Ministers / State Ministers and former/present Members of Lok Sabha / Rajya Sabha / State Legislative Assemblies / State Legislative Councils, former and present Mayors of Municipal Corporations, former and present Chairpersons of District Panchayats.
• All serving or retired officers and employees of Central / State Government Ministries / Offices / Departments and their field units, Central or State PSEs, and Attached offices / Autonomous Institutions under the Government as well as regular 3 employees of the Local Bodies (Excluding Multi Tasking Staff / Class IV / Group D employees)
•  All superannuated/retired pensioners whose monthly pension is Rs.10,000/- or more (Excluding Multi Tasking Staff / Class IV / Group D employees)
• All Persons who paid Income Tax in the last assessment year.
• Professionals like Doctors, Engineers, Lawyers, Chartered Accountants, and Architects are registered with Professional bodies and carry out their profession by undertaking practices.
• In case of new beneficiaries being uploaded on the PM-KISAN Portal, all land-holding farmers’ families who are Non-resident Indians (NRIs) in terms of the provisions of the Income Tax Act, 1961 shall be excluded from any benefit under the Scheme.

4. Online Crop Booking:

The objective of this program is for the AEO of the cluster to register the area sown by the farmers in the online portal duly visiting each farmer field survey number-wise (both Agriculture and Horticulture crops). After registering the crop in the portal the farmer will get an SMS to their registered number for confirmation. At the time of marketing, the farmer will get sown certificate to sell their produce to the government agencies such as MARKFED, NAFED, CCI, etc based on the areas registered in the portal.  

5. Soil Health Card Scheme (SHC):

 “National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) will be implemented during the 12th Plan with the following objectives 

• To make agriculture more productive, sustainable, and climate resilient;
• To conserve natural resources;
• To adopt comprehensive soil health management practices
• To optimize utilization of water resources; etc.

“Soil Health Management (SHM) is one of the most important interventions under NMSA, SHM aims at promoting Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) through judicious use of chemical fertilizers including secondary and micronutrients in conjunction with organic manures and bio-fertilizers for improving soil health and its productivity; strengthening of soil and fertilizer testing facilities to provide soil test based recommendations to farmers for improving soil fertility; ensuring quality control requirements of fertilizers, bio-fertilizers and organic fertilizers under Fertilizer Control Order, 1985; up gradation of skill and knowledge of soil testing laboratory staff, extension staff and farmers through training and demonstrations; promoting organic farming practices, etc.

6. Seed Village Programm:

The Seed Village Programme is one of the important components of the Sub Mission On Seed and Planting Material (SMSP) under the National Mission on Agriculture Extension & Technology (NMAET) being implemented by the Government of India. The Seed Village Programme ensures the supply of quality seeds of notified varieties to the farmers in time at their places at affordable prices besides ensuring quick multiplication of new seed varieties in a shorter time in that Mandal/district based on the crop situation.

Objectives:

The basic objectives of the Seed Village Programme are:

1. To improve the quality of Farm saved Seeds.
2. To increase the Seed Replacement Rate (SRR).
3. To enhance the horizontal spread of high-yielding varieties among farmers for improving the productivity of crops.

• Financial assistance @ 50% subsidy is available for the distribution of foundation/certified seeds of Cereals for 1 acre per farmer per crop each season.
• Financial assistance @ 60% subsidy is available for the distribution of foundation/certified seeds of Pulses, Oil seeds, and Green manure seeds for 1 acre per farmer per crop each season.

7. Rainfed Area Development Scheme (RAD) under the national mission for sustainable agriculture:

Introduction:

Rainfed areas constitute about 3/4th of the land mass under arid, Semi-arid, Dry – humid zones. rainfed agriculture is a complex, diverse, and risk-prone activity. Activities proposed under RAD will act as a catalyst to accomplish the ultimate objective of enhanced productivity, minimizing the risk of crop losses due to uncertainties of weather conditions, Harnessing efficiency of resources, assuring foods and livelihood/income security at the farm level, and strengthening the farmers capacity to adapt to climatic changes.

The Broad objectives of the program are:

• Increasing agricultural productivity of rain-fed areas in a sustainable manner by adopting appropriate farming system-based approaches.
• To minimize the adverse impact of possible crop failure due to drought, flood, or uneven rainfall distribution through diversified and composite farming systems.
• Restoration of confidence in rainfed agriculture by creating sustained employment opportunities through improved on-farm technologies and cultivation practices.
• Enhancement of farmers’ income and livelihood support for deduction of poverty in rainfed areas.

8. National Food Security Mission (NFSM):

National Food Security Mission (NFSM) was launched in October 2007. The Mission is being continued during the 12^th five-year plan with new targets of additional production of food grains.

In the Telangana State, the National Food security mission (NFSM) will have components

• i) NFSM – Pulses
• ii) NFSM Coarse cereals
• iii) NFSM-Rice            
• iv) NFSM-Nutri Cereals and   
• v) NFSM- commercial crops.

Objectives:

• Increasing production of rice, pulses, and coarse cereals through area expansion and productivity enhancement in a sustainable manner in the state.
• Restoring Soil fertility and productivity at the individual farm level.
• Enhancing farm-level economy to restore confidence among the farmers.

9. Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA):

The Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA) Scheme is in implementation in 7 States and 33 districts in Telangana with 60:40 central and state share.

Objectives of the Programme:

• To Develop an efficient, effective, demand-driven, research-integrated, and financially sustainable public extension system.
• To revitalize the Agricultural technology generation assessment refinement and Dissemination systems.
• Reforming public Sector Extension, promoting the private sector to effectively complement, supplement, and whatever possible to substitute public extension.
• Augmenting media and Information Technology support for the extension.
• Mainstreaming Gender concerns in extension.
• Capacity Building skill up-gradation of farmers and extension functionaries.
• Increase the Quality and type of technologies being disseminated by the extension system.
• Strengthen Research-Extension- farmer (REF) Linkages.

The following staff Phone numbers office of the Agriculture Department, Wanaparthy District, TS: