HYDERABAD
Minister for Agriculture Tummala Nageswara Rao criticised the Centre for neglecting the agriculture sector of Telangana that has been contributing substantially to the State’s economy.
Repeated requests made to the Centre to enhance the duty on palm oil imports to encourage the cultivation oilpalm plantation crop. He faulted the Centre for not allocating any funds to the turmeric board and not recognising it as the high value crop, leaving the farmers raising the spice crop in Telangana highly disappointed.
The farmers were also expecting dedicated funds to promote turmeric cultivation. Similarly, the Union Budget was also disappointing as it had no announcement on the establishment of the coconut board, the Minister said in a statement on Monday.
The Minister stated that the Budget proposals had also indicated an increase in fertilizer prices and it would burden the farming community further as there were no interventions in the Budget to bring down the input costs. The Centre had also failed to provide the backing of a legislation to the minimum support price and the Budget had also lacked direction on the agricultural marketing, price stabilisation and market reforms.
Further, there was no effort to encourage farmers of oilseeds producers as no decision was announced on the duty on edible oil imports. The Centre had also cut the allocation of funds to Telangana in the name of clubbing various Central schemes to the farm sector.
Published – February 02, 2026 08:23 pm IST
