Meat-loving Telangana shuns vegetable cultivation; crisis may be looming

People who love green vegetables are seeing red in Telangana, where not serving enough meat or chicken dishes in feasts, funerals, or marriages often triggers quarrels.

The well-acclaimed movie Balagam (2023) depicted how serving mutton curry with shank determines the status or otherwise of the guest. In August 2024, in Nizamabad, relatives of a bride and groom had a fist-fight over serving of fewer mutton pieces at the wedding. In 2022, at Shahpurnagar in Hyderabad, a wedding was called off as the groom’s relatives felt insulted over inadequate chicken curry at a pre-wedding feast. Traditionally, Telangana is a meat-eating society where vegetarian-only feasts are often detested.

Meat eaters soar in state

According to the State Economic Outlook 2024, the per-capita availability of meat in Telangana is 23.97 kg, the highest in the country. The per-capita meat consumption has gone up sharply in Telangana since the formation of the state in 2014, up from 12.95 kg per person per annum in 2014-15 to 23.97.17 kg in 2023-24, thanks to the aggressive promotion of livestock by the government along with free distribution of sheep to OBC Yadavs and other castes. The family health survey 2022 reports that only 2.7 per cent people are vegetarian in Telangana.

In tune with this trend, the state is moving away from vegetable cultivation, forcing people to buy vegetables imported from other states at higher prices.

Huge shortage of vegetables

According to Prof Neeraja Prabhakar of the Sri Konda Laxman Telangana Horticultural University (SKLTGHU), there is a deficit of about 18.29 lakh million tonnes of vegetables in Telangana.

While the state is surplus in tomato, onion, potato, leafy vegetables, ridge gourd, brinjal, bitter gourd, and beans, it is deficit in the cultivation of vegetables like green chilli, gourds, beans, capsicum, potato, yam, leafy vegetables and onion.

Most vegetarians are concentrated in the state capital Hyderabad, which is facing shortages as well as price escalation.

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City expands, farms disappear

As per the consumption pattern studied by the Professor Jayashankar Telangana Agricultural University (PJTAU), on an average, Hyderabad people consume 8.08 kg of vegetables per month or 269 grams per day per person. This is 56 grams less than the 325 grams per day per person recommended by ICMR. In Hyderabad, consumption of leafy vegetables is particularly less.

The city was dependent on peri-urban areas as well as neighbouring districts such as Rangareddy, Nalgonda, Siddipet, Sangareddy, Vikarabad, Adilabad and Nizamabad for vegetables.

In the past 15 years, the peri-urban areas of Hyderabad have witnessed the impact of the city’s expansion due to many infrastructural projects that have affected agriculture irrevocably.

Vegetable cultivation hit

According to Prof. C Ramachandraiah, who studied the impact of these projects, the area under vegetable cultivation has decreased after planning the Outer Ring Road (ORR) of Hyderabad in 2003.

“Due to ORR, agriculture disappeared in 25 revenue mandals in and around Hyderabad. The total sown area that went out of cultivation in these mandals was more than 90,000 hectares, affecting the cultivation of vegetables,” he said. This was the first major assault on vegetable farming.

Similarly, expansion of real estate projects affected the cultivation of vegetables in districts ringing Hyderabad such as Rangareddy, Sangareddy, Nalgonda, Mahabungar.

Real estate woos farmers

“These districts were once the main suppliers of many types of vegetables to Hyderabad. As the vegetable cultivation has no institutional support, farmers have fallen to the lure of huge rates offered for their lands by real estate promoters,” says Professor J Suresh, a plant-breeding scientist and columnist from PJTAU.

The decline of vegetable crop area that began in 2003 reached its peak in 2024. This can be gauged from the shrinking crop area in Sangareddy district, one of the principal suppliers of vegetables to Hyderabad.

The vegetable area has crashed by more than 50 per cent, from 17,764 acres in 2019-20 to 7,305 acres in 2023-24. Sangareddy district horticultural officer P Sambasiva Rao said the cost of cultivation of vegetables and the fluctuation in the prices were the main deterrents for many farmers to stick to the vegetable cultivation.

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Other issues for vegetables

Professor Neeraja lists a few more challenges such as unfavourable conditions (high temperature and depletion of ground water during summer), low productivity due to non-adoption of advanced technologies namely micro-irrigation, fertigation, mulching and shade-net as the reasons for farmers’ disinterest in vegetable farming.

Guduru Srikanth Reddy, a young farmer from Sangareddy, said vegetable cultivation was not on the priority list of the government.

“Farmers have lost interest in vegetables after the government withdrew the subsidy for micro irrigation. Schemes like vegetable crop colonies have remained only on paper,” he said.

Farmers turn to paddy, palm oil

After the rampant urbanization, three more waves of change — expansion of paddy cultivation, oil-palm cultivation and promotion of ethanol plants — have also affected the vegetable cultivation in Telangana.

In the last 10 years, due to expansion of irrigation, a huge extent of land has come under paddy cultivation. Farmers have flocked to paddy because of the minimum support price (MSP).

According to the Department of Food and Public Distribution, in 2022-23, Telangana produced 160.14 lakh tonnes of rice, making it the top rice-producing state in India.

Incentives for vegetables missing

Now, the newly announced Oil-Palm Mission with a variety of subsidies has become a new attraction for farmers to quit vegetable crops and switch to Oil-Palm cultivation. The government has set an ambitious target of expanding oil-palm to 20 lakh acres in next few years.

Such a plan to encourage vegetable cultivation is missing, says Kanneganti Ravi of Rythu Swarajya Vedika, Telangana.

He said the priorities of the government were not in favour of small and marginal farmers who cultivate vegetables. This, he said, had led to the decline in vegetable production.

A crisis may be looming

“The state requires 5,110,000 tonnes of vegetables. In 2022-23. the production from the Kharif and Rabi seasons was merely 14,26, 694 tonnes (25 per cent). Consequently, the state had to import from other states to fill the huge gap and people are forced to buy at higher prices,” he said.

When the entire land was set to be occupied by paddy, oil-palm and maize, you have no land left for the vegetable cultivation,” he added.

“Telangana will face a severe veggie and pulses crisis if the government doesn’t wake up and encourage these crops with special incentives,” Ravi said.