A delegation from Telangana led by Minister for Agriculture S. Niranajan Reddy visited the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) at Washington DC on Wednesday, the third of the team’s visit to the US.
Secretary (Agriculture) M. Raghunandan Rao, Managing Director of State Seed Development Corporation K. Keshavulu, who is also the president of International Seed Testing Association (ISTA) and Director of Digital Media Dileep Konatham were a part of the team.
Mr. Reddy had a meeting with Director of NIFA Manjith Mishra and other officials of the agency working under the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Mr. Mishra explained to the visiting team that the NIFA was working towards improving research in agriculture, encouraging new inventions, providing funding for the purpose, improving productivity and maintaining ecological balance. He stated that development of agriculture sector in any country would depend on the quantum of research work being taken up there and the political leadership would play key in taking the research results from lab to field.
Explaining the strides made by Telangana in nine years of its formation, Mr. Niranjan Reddy said the State had overtaken Punjab in paddy production last (2022-23) year and the focus now was on improving crop productivity and income of farmers.
The two sides agreed that there was scope for working together in information technology, farm economics, seed technology, post-harvest management, marketing, emerging technologies, newer planting technology and others. The Telangana team also explained about Rythu Bandhu, Rythu Bima, Mission Kakatiya, 24×7 free power to agricultural pump-sets, construction of new irrigation projects being implemented in Telangana.
