Crop Diversification Key To Farmers’s Prosperity: Mahabubabad Collector
The collector directed agriculture department officials to conduct awareness programmes in villages and provide scientific guidance to farmers on crop diversification.
MAHABUBABAD: Mahabubabad district collector Sneha Shabarish on Saturday urged farmers to adopt crop diversification, saying sustainable farming practices were essential in the face of changing climatic conditions.
Launching a crop diversification campaign by sowing green gram seeds in the fields of tribal farmers Badavath Veeranna and Bujji at Edjerla village in Maripeda mandal, the collector called upon cultivators to shift from water-intensive crops to alternatives requiring less irrigation.
She said climate change, erratic rainfall and prevailing El Nino conditions necessitated the adoption of climate-resilient farming practices.
The collector directed agriculture department officials to conduct awareness programmes in villages and provide scientific guidance to farmers on crop diversification.
She advised farmers not to depend solely on paddy and maize, but to cultivate pulses, oilseeds such as safflower, oil palm and sesame, besides vegetables. She suggested dividing agricultural land for cultivation of multiple crops to reduce weather-related risks.
Shabarish said the district administration was preparing a project to promote the cultivation of a variety of nutritious crops in every village to improve food security and enhance farm incomes.
Expressing concern over the excessive use of urea and chemical pesticides, she said indiscriminate use of chemicals was affecting food quality and urged farmers to adopt sustainable farming practices with reduced chemical inputs. She added that produce grown with fewer chemicals could find better marketing opportunities in urban areas.
Referring to crop procurement, the collector said balanced cropping patterns could reduce surplus procurement and enable public resources to be utilised for irrigation, education and other development works.
She also said the district administration was examining a proposal to utilise facilities under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and animal health clinics for sterilisation of monkeys to mitigate crop damage.
As part of the campaign, the collector distributed “Arka Tejaswi”, a vegetable seed variety developed by the ICAR–Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), Bengaluru, to farmers.
