Hyderabad: Bihar is looking to study Telangana’s oil palm cultivation model, while Telangana has expressed interest in learning from Bihar’s experience in makhana cultivation, processing and marketing, following a meeting between agriculture ministers of the two states on Wednesday.Bihar agriculture minister Vijay Kumar Sinha met Telangana agriculture minister Tummala Nageswara Rao at the Secretariat, where the two discussed cooperation in agriculture, technology, crop diversification and the exchange of best practices.Sinha expressed interest in Telangana’s oil palm cultivation, including the incentives offered to farmers, nursery development, processing mills and micro-irrigation facilities. He said Bihar would examine the possibility of promoting oil palm cultivation in suitable areas and send a delegation of officials and farmers to Telangana to study the model.Tummala said Telangana would extend all possible technical support for oil palm cultivation. Telangana, which has been expanding oil palm cultivation, had 3.1 lakh acres under the crop in 2025-26 and produced 74,000 metric tonnes of crude palm oil, according to officials.The Telangana minister, meanwhile, expressed interest in Bihar’s makhana cultivation and the state’s efforts in its production, value addition, processing and marketing. Bihar officials said the state had developed crop clusters for makhana, maize, fruits, vegetables and millets, and recently set up a Makhana Board to promote research, value addition and marketing.The two states also discussed the use of technology in agriculture. Tummala explained Telangana govt’s initiatives, including satellite-based crop monitoring, digital farmer identification through AgriStack, weather alerts, crop booking and the AI-based KrishiVAS crop monitoring system.He also briefed the Bihar delegation on Telangana’s farmer welfare schemes, including Rythu Bharosa, crop loan waiver, crop insurance and the ₹500 bonus for fine varieties of paddy.The ministers agreed to facilitate exchange visits by officials and farmers, with Bihar teams expected to visit Telangana to study oil palm cultivation and Telangana representatives to visit Bihar to examine the makhana value chain.
