Need to make agriculture more attractive: Venkaiah Naidu

HYDERABAD: Agriculture is becoming unsustainable as a profession and there is an urgent need to make it more attractive and sustainable, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu said here on Saturday.
Naidu also emphasised on the need for crop diversification and value addition through food processing at the inauguration of the second edition of Agritech South conference and exhibition organised by the Telangana chapter of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Prof Jayashankar, Telangana State Agricultural University.
“Farmers need to diversify to other allied sectors like dairy and poultry to make agriculture more sustainable. Sericulture, horticulture and fish/prawn culture too are in great demand and farmers should venture into them along with agriculture,” said Naidu.
While stressing on the need to preserve and conserve traditional water bodies, Naidu lauded the Telangana government for taking up major irrigation projects.
Pointing out that agriculture and allied sectors are the backbone of the country, Telangana minister for agriculture, cooperation and marketing Niranjan Reddy said the state government has brought several farmer friendly schemes to support the farming community in the state.
He, however, rued that despite a doubling of the per hectare yield in recent years, several factors have contributed to depleting farmers’ income.