1,000 Telangana officials to get agri tips in Israel
HYDERABAD: Nearly 1,000 officers of agriculture and horticulture departments of the Telangana government are scheduled to fly to Israel in December on a study tour for skill enhancement and learning hi-tech agriculture practices.
The officials will spend a minimum of 15 days to a maximum of three weeks in Israel, undertake field visits and interact with local farmers and agriculture experts, besides learning modern methods of cultivation and water harvesting techniques. The tour, which official sources said will cost the Telangana government an estimated ₹25-₹30 crore, has come under fire from the opposition Congress, which described the exercise as sheer wastage of public money.
Official sources said the tour will include officials ranging from field officers and technical staff to officials of various heads of department ranks in both agriculture and horticulture wings.
The estimated expenditure includes the cost of transportation, boarding and lodging and field visits.
“It’s big money, but is worth spending. It is not just a flying visit or holiday junket. It helps in expanding the horizons of the officials and change their mindset. All these days, our officials have been like frogs in the well without any skill enhancement and functioning in a routine manner. The tour will help them gain both theoretical and practical knowledge of the modern methods of cultivation and new technologies,” Telangana agriculture secretary C Parthasarthy told HT.
The modalities of the tour will be finalised once the training module is decided in consultation with the Israeli government, he said.
Parthasarthy said Israel was chosen because it was a pioneer in modern agriculture techniques.
“The Israelis are known for intensive cultivation with less water but with high productivity in agriculture using hi-tech methods. They install sensors near crops so that whenever the water supply is less, they give signals and water is released automatically into the fields. Like power grid, they have water grids, which measure the quantum of water released into fields,” he said.
The senior IAS officer said the Israelis have also mastered postharvest management with simplified methods of picking and grading produce.
They have warehouses and processing units adjacent to their farms so that they cut down tra-nsportation costs. “They are also known for robotic cultivation and maintenance of dairy farms. “Just 10 people can manage hundreds of cows and buffalos with the help of robots,” he said.
In the next phase, the Telangana government is planning to send a select group of farmers as well to Israel. These ‘model farmers’ are likely to be identified by farmers’ coordination committees to be set up shortly with the ruling party-affiliated farmers.
The Opposition is not impressed, with the Congress saying the tour is an unnecessary replication of a similar exercise in 1999 in undivided AP.