Telangana farmers switch to horticultural crops in Kharif

Farmers in Telangana have changed their crop preferences during Kharif 2026, with the area cultivated for horticultural crops, especially flowers, red chillies and other spices, seeing a significant increase. The shift comes amid concerns over El Niño’s impact on the southwest monsoon, lack of rainfall and stress on irrigation.

The area growing flowers saw the highest increase of 198%, followed by other spices at 192% and red chillies at 80%. The area under vegetable cultivation increased by 66%, while turmeric saw an increase of 21%. In contrast, the area under fruit cultivation increased by only 1%.

It was found that the need to improve the supply chain for vegetable export units and cold storage came up for discussion.

Agriculture Minister Tummala Nageswara Rao has directed Horticulture Department officials to further encourage farmers to grow horticultural crops and provide them with high quality seeds for growing vegetables. In a meeting held in Hyderabad on Friday, he said officials should work on exporting vegetables to other states. The need to strengthen the supply chain for vegetable exports and set up cold storage facilities was also discussed.

Another area of ​​interest was oil palm cultivation. The minister said some farmers grow cocoa as an intercrop on oil palm plantations and called for the promotion of the practice to improve farmers’ incomes.

Published – 9 Oct 2026 23:48 IST