Number of questions- Mains: 02, Prelims – 10
Mains Questions of the day:
1.Explain the Telangana’s Agriculture Data Management Policy.
Introduction:
Explain briefly about the Telangana Agricultural Data management policy.
Body:
Mention the reasons that has contributed for the introduction of this policy.
Conclusion:
- Agriculture forms the backbone of Telangana’s Economy.
- This policy will definitely help the farmers of Telangana.
- Apart from these Telangana Government should also concentrate on some problematic areas of agriculture system such as:
- changing weather conditions creating a situation of drought
- lack of ground water irrigation sources
- digging bore wells for water
- extreme indebtedness of farmers
- failure of bank institutions to extend the loans in timely manner
- increasing capital investments and
- lack of reasonable market price for farm produce
Content:
- Monetising certain agricultural data has been proposed under a new Agriculture Data Management Policy of Telangana Government.
- The policy which aims to codify norms, processes, guidelines, etc. for handling agricultural data.
- Apart from monetising agricultural data, the policy also proposes:
- instituting grievance redressal
- data management officers for various entities including government departments
- a grievance redressal mechanism and key principles on which data governance frameworks, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), etc. can be built for agricultural data.
Importance of the policy:
- Due to 5 million farmers depend on it and that the sector contributes to about 15% of the GSDP. So Telangana Government has been giving a high priority to the development of the agriculture sector.
- The Government, further impacts on the levels of production, productivity, and profitability of the farmers by promoting digital agriculture and extensive use of technologies including the emerging technologies like AI, ML, IoT, Drones and satellite imagery.
- Agri-tech initiatives, even from the Central government are up-and-coming in India.
- Telangana’s policy could guide the Central government’s initiative of Agri-tech.
Purposes for processing data:
- For agricultural credit:
- Assessment of credit worthiness and extension of short, medium, and long-term loans to farmers and the associated processes like recovery.
- Extending credit to farmers basing on Negotiable Warehouse Receipts (NWR)
- For Insurance:
- Providing crop insurance cover and disbursing of the amount assured on meeting the defined criteria.
- Providing insurance cover for farm machinery
- For payment services:
Enabling electronic payments and receipts arising out of the transactions relating the purposes specified in this standard.
2.Telangana’s Rythu Vedikas truly empowering farmers. Analyse.
Introduction:
Write briefly about Telangana’s Rythu Vedikas scheme.
Body:
Mention the reasons that Telangana’s Rythu Vedikas contributed to empower the farmers of Telangana.
Conclusion:
- Agriculture is a focal point to all the strategies for planned socio-economic development of Telangana.
- Agriculture plays an important role in the economy of Telangana and its better performance is vital for inclusive growth.
- No doubt, the Rythu Vedikas will become a hub for all the farmer related activities such as Agriculture Knowledge Sharing and Dissemination Centers serving the objective of the Government to provide services at doorsteps of the farmers to make farming sustainable and profitable.
Content:
- Telangana Rythu Vedika Scheme is the scheme of Telangana Government for the farmers.
- The Government has created a platform for the farmers to address all the underlying issues confronted by the farmers.
- The platform will act as a one-stop destination for all the farmers by keeping the all farmers in a similar platform for selling their produce.
- Through the state policies, the government will directly purchase the food grains from the farmers. Thereby, giving direct aids to the farmers of the state.
Objectives of the Scheme:
- Increase the returns of the farmers who are affected due to the Pandemic.
- With this portal, Farmers can discuss various issues.
- The scheme has the prime objective to redressal the issues of the farmers.
- The scheme will focus on discussions over farm-related issues.
- It will address and raise the agro-farm production related issues.
Benefits and Features of Rythu Vedika Scheme:
The scheme has some unique benefits and features associated with the welfare of the farmers in the state. Some of these benefits are:
- The scheme focuses on organising the farmers into groups, to address the collective issues.
- With the scheme implementation, a high Price for the Produce is ensured.
- The scheme will enhance the agricultural productivity of state.
- Farmers will be able to access more beneficial marketing facilities.
- The Rythu vedikas will serve as a platform for farmers to collectively raise issues.
- This initiative will increase the productivity of the farms.
- It will increase the profits and returns of the farmers.
- A Rythu Vedika will serve as a portal to discuss the issues of the farmers.
- By using this platform farmer can also sell their products.
- Such a scheme will also ensure that the rights of the farmers are guarded.
Empowering the farmers of Telangana:
The initiative is proving to be a role model in the areas of agriculture.
- Rythu Vedikas are the first of its kind in India where a platform is created for the farmers to organize themselves in groups for attaining their ultimate objectives:
- to get the remunerative prices for their crops
- better marketing facilities
- higher productivity and
- ultimately making the agriculture profitable.
- They will also help the farmers to organize themselves into a formidable group to protect their rights.
- The Government of Telangana proposes to connect all Rythu Vedikas across the state through the optical fiber network.
- Rythu Vedikas function through qualified staff. They ensure the:
- Delivery of Services
- Capacity Building and
- Knowledge Dissemination.
- they also get farmer advisories and
- linkages with service centers for all the Government schemes.
- Delivery of services include: Crop Booking, Enrolment of farmers under Rythu Bandhu, Rythu Bhima, PM Kisan, etc., and implementation of various state and centrally sponsored schemes by selection of farmers.
- Capacity building includes region specific and crop oriented training programs to create awareness among the farmers.
- Also, training of the farmers on identification, advantages of natural risks and timely application of inputs to harness the higher yields are provided.
- The emphasis is to empower the farmers by adopting good agricultural practices, duly emphasizing the critical stages of a crop and decision making in his own field, and also helping to minimise the pesticide and insecticide usage.
- As part of knowledge dissemination, training and field diagnostic visits and demonstrations take place.
- Besides, timely farm advisories to farmers on pests and disease outbreak, weather updates, market prices, availability of seeds, fertilizers, etc., at Rythu Vedikas are provided to the farmers.
- Rythu Vedikas are serving as service centers for all Government schemes by disseminating the latest guidelines, feedback of farmers and for making the schemes more reachable to the farmers.
- Agriculture and Horticulture Universities, National level institutes, State and National Institutes on Agriculture and allied departments are utilizing the Rythu Vedikas for their programs.
- The Rythu Vedikas bring in a transparent, people-friendly and progressive change in Agriculture sector.
Prelims questions of the day:
1.Consider the following statements regarding Telangana
- Between 2015-16 to 2020-21, the paddy production growth rate is decreased.
- Between 2015-16 to 2020-21, the Cotton production growth rate is increased.
Which of the above statements is/are incorrect?
- Only 1
- Only 2
- Both 1 and 2
- None of them
Answer: A
Explanation:
Between 2015-16 to 2020-21, paddy production increased by a massive 378%, and cotton production increased by 61% in the same period and resulting in Telangana becoming a major Paddy production state.
2.Arrange the following components of the agriculture sector in increasing order based on the 2021-22 budget statistics of Telangana
- Livestock
- fishing and aquaculture
- forestry and logging sector
- crops
- 3-2-4-1
- 2-3-4-1
- 3-2-1-4
- 2-1-3-4
Answer: A
Explanation:
A significant portion of this growth in agriculture was driven by the livestock sub-sector, currently, livestock accounts for 49.73% of the overall sector, followed by crops at 44.66%, fishing and aquaculture at 3.23%, forestry and logging sector stood at 2.38% in 2021-22.
3.Consider the following:
- Generation of additional income
- Productivity enhancement
- Improve market access
Which of the above are the major goals of Farmer Producer Groups (FPGs)?
- 1 and 2
- 2 and 3
- All of them
- 1 and 3
Answer: C
Explanation:
As part of Sustainable Livelihoods initiatives, Farmer Producer Groups (FPGs) and Livestock Farmer Producer Groups with women have been formed to enable farmers to create additional income through productivity enhancement and improved market accessibility.
4.What was the gross irrigated area at the time of Telangana state formation in 2014?
- 62.5 lakh acres
- 75.5 lakh acres
- 52.5 lakh acres
- 85.5 lakh acres
Answer: A
Explanation:
The overall gross irrigated area in Telangana increased by 119% between 2014-15 (from 62.48 lakh Acres) and 2020-21 (136.86 lakh Acres).
5.What are Custom Hiring Centres in agriculture?
- They help in agricultural exports
- They are started to hire agricultural labours
- They help in accessing agricultural machinery
- CHC is a platform to purchase fertilisers
Answer: C
Explanation:
SERP has conceptualised the “Custom Hiring Centre” (CHC) model executed by the Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO) to make farm machines accessible to those individuals who cannot afford them, primarily to small and marginal farmers, on a rental basis.
6.Consider the following statements as per the agriculture statistics 2020 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare
- Telangana stands at 2nd for cotton production.
- and at 3rd position in Maize production
Which of the following statements are correct?
- Only 1
- Only 2
- Both 1 and 2
- None of them
Answer: C
Explanation:
As per the agriculture statistics 2020 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare, Government of India, Telangana stands at 2nd for cotton production (with an output of 6.83 million bales) and at 3rd position in Maize production (with an output of 3 Million tonnes)
7.What is the Net Sown Area percentage in Telangana’s total area?
- 55
- 45
- 59
- 49
Answer: D
Explanation:
Telangana State is the 11th largest State in India with a geographical area of over 276.96 lakh acres (112.08 lakh Hectares). Out of the total area, 49.07 percent of the area comes under Net Sown Area and around 24.07 percent is under forest coverage. Land put to non-agriculture uses is around 7.46 percent, fallow lands (9.02 percent), Barren and uncultivable land (5.42 percent) and the remaining is under permanent pastures and other grazing lands.
8.As per the Annual Credit Plan prepared by the State Level Bankers Committee of Telangana, what was the total annual credit plan for the agricultural sector during the year 2021-22?
- 81,541 crore
- 91,541 crore
- 71,541 crore
- 61,541 crore
Answer: B
Explanation:
As per the Annual Credit Plan prepared by the State Level Bankers Committee of Telangana, the total annual credit plan for the agricultural sector during the year 2021-22 is Rs. 91,541 crores.
9.What percentage of power supplied in the state is towards agriculture?
- 50%
- 40%
- 60%
- 70%
Answer: B
Explanation:
About 40% of the power supplied in the state is towards agriculture.
10.What is the ratio of share in the construction of Rythu Vedicas between the Department of Agriculture and MGNREGA?
- 5:6
- 4:5
- 5:4
- 6:5
Answer: D
Explanation:
The Government of Telangana has taken an initiative to bring farmers under one platform and help them attain higher returns by constructing RythuVedika (RV) in every Agriculture Extension Officer Cluster consisting of 1-3 villages.
Each RV has been constructed at a cost of Rs. 22 lakhs with a share of Rs. 12 lakhs from the Department of Agriculture and Rs. 10 lakhs from MGNREGA funds.