Avoid cotton, take up alternative crops: Harish Rao

Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao on Saturday called upon the farmers in the State to opt for alternative crops instead of going in for regular cotton growing. “The farming community should refrain from sowing cotton as that will result in losses”, he maintained. As the monsoon season is set to begin, the farmers should sow crops like soya bean, maize, red gram, green gram, black gram and others to reap benefits. While cotton crop requires more investment and yields less produce resulting in loss, the other crops do not require much investment and one can expect more yield, Harish Rao noted. The Minister said the State government would offer needed support to the farmers for alternative crops, he said, adding that adequate stocks of fertilizers and seed were kept ready at mandal, zonal and district levels. He said the TRS government had been implementing many welfare schemes. He said the flagship scheme “KG-to-PG” would be launched from this academic year to offer free quality education to the poor. Besides sanctioning 250 residential schools, the State government had extended Kalyana Lakshmi scheme to Backward Class girls, he added.