Yadgir: Calling for Yadgir to be known for groundnut products in the same way that Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor is known for mangoes, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday urged concerted efforts to develop value-added groundnut processing in the district and strengthen women-led enterprises.
She was speaking after inaugurating the Farmers’ Training and Common Facility Centre at Badepalli village in Yadgir.
Sitharaman said Yadgir had been chosen for the project because of its significant groundnut cultivation and its strategic connectivity with Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana.
Describing the centre as a modest but meaningful initiative for women’s empowerment, Sitharaman said it would strengthen the groundnut value chain in Yadgir, which produces nearly 22,500 metric tonnes of the crop every year.
She pointed out that the centre, run entirely by women, was the only such agricultural processing unit in the Kalyana Karnataka region. She expressed concern that the center, established six months ago, is operating at only around 15 per cent of its capacity because of the role played by intermediaries. She said women associated with the project were facing difficulties in procuring groundnuts directly from farmers despite institutional support.
“This is an asset for the district. It should be fully utilised,” she said, adding that the success of the project could pave the way for more such ventures in Yadgir.
“Once the government initiative is successful, then there are possibilities of even private players coming,” she said.
The Union Minister stressed the need to register products on multiple digital platforms, including e-commerce and quick-commerce platforms such as Amazon and Flipkart, to expand market access.
During her nearly 30-minute address, she switched between English, Hindi, Kannada, and Telugu. Earlier, speaking about Yadgir’s development challenges, Sitharaman said the district, along with neighbouring Raichur, had been identified as an aspirational district requiring focused attention from the Centre, the state government, and local administration. She stressed that aspirational districts should not be viewed as backward regions but as areas where additional efforts were needed to accelerate development.
Noting that nearly 75 percent of Yadgir’s land is under cultivation, she said agriculture remained the district’s mainstay, and that value addition to agricultural produce would play a key role in improving farmers’ incomes and boosting the local economy.
The Union Minister noted that the district’s female literacy rate remained unsatisfactory at around 45 per cent. She pointed out that Yadgir continued to rank among the lowest districts in Karnataka on indicators such as poverty, human development, per-capita income, educational infrastructure and availability of teachers.
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