The Telangana Government is setting up a Spices Park in Nizamabad. The park will come up in Padigal in Nizamabad district with an outlay of Rs 31 crore.
“The park is coming up in 40 acres, catering to farmers in Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Adilabad and Warangal. We have sanctioned Rs 15 crore for the project so far,” Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, Minister Agriculture and Cooperation, has said.
“The park would primarily focus on turmeric farmers. The idea is to eliminate middlemen and provide the farmers with remunerative prices for the commodity,” the Minister said.
Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, he said the Agriculture Department is all set for the kharif season. “We have kept sufficient stocks of seed and fertilisers. The weathermen have predicted a good monsoon and we expect good cropping season this year,” the Minister said.
The Minister asked the farmers not go grow cotton this year and go for alternative crops like soya and maize. “Cotton dominates the acreage with 42 per cent of all the arable land of 36 lakh hectares. We are targeting to reduce this excessive dependency on the crop,” the Minister said.
Farmers grow cotton in 17.7 lakh hectares, followed by paddy with 10.59 lakh ha and maize with 4.78 lakh ha.