Hyderabad: Telangana Agriculture Minister Tummala Nageswara Rao launched the seed festival at PJTSAU and asked farmers to cultivate crops with strong market demand.
The Minister visited Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU) at Rajendranagar on Saturday. During the visit, he inaugurated the university’s Seed Festival-2026 programme under the 99-day Praja Palana-Pragathi Pranalika initiative.
Initially, the Minister visited the Centre for Digital Agriculture and Technology established last year on the campus. Scientists explained ongoing research on drone technology and its use in agriculture. Tummala Nageswara Rao said labour shortages could become a major challenge for the farm sector in future. Therefore, he stressed the need for wider drone adoption in agriculture.
He also appreciated the university for developing drone-based agricultural methods suited to changing farming conditions. Later, the Minister visited the robotics and sensor-based laboratory developed recently with SBI-CSR funds.
Seed festival at PJTSAU focuses on quality seeds
During the visit, scientists informed the Minister that they had already developed several robots for agricultural applications. He also toured the RS&GIS laboratory functioning under C-DAT and reviewed satellite-based statistics recently submitted to the Telangana Government.
Officials informed him that nearly 9.3 per cent of land owned by farmers in the state currently remained uncultivated.
Later, the Minister distributed quality foundation seeds of different crops to 10 farmers after formally launching the seed distribution programme. He said the university was playing an important role by supplying quality seeds directly to farmers.
At the same time, he cautioned farmers against falling for misleading claims made by some seed companies. Instead, he advised them to use certified seeds to reduce cultivation costs and improve productivity.
The Minister also urged farmers to adopt crop rotation practices and cultivate crops with better marketing opportunities. He said the agricultural university, established six decades ago with support from several national leaders including former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, had earned a prominent place in the country.
He expressed confidence that the university would achieve further progress with the support of Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy. In addition, he asked scientists to work closely with farmers and provide practical solutions for field-level problems.
Tummala Nageswara Rao also directed the university to make advanced global technologies accessible to the farming community. Vice-Chancellor Aldas Janaiah said the university launched the seed distribution programme last year to ensure farmers received quality seeds crucial for cultivation.
Research Director Dr Maruthi Balaram, Dr Balaji Naik, Dr Neelima, Dr Venkateshwarlu, Dr Jella Satyanarayana, Dr Y. Chandramohan, scientists and farmers attended the programme.
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➡️వ్యవసాయ వర్సిటీ విత్తన వారోత్సవాలు-2026 ప్రారంభించిన మంత్రి తుమ్మల
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