ISB to devise branding, marketing plan for Telangana Sona

The Telangana Sona or RNR 15048, a new rice variety, will get a face lift. The Indian School of Business (ISB) will help the State Agriculture Department and the State Agriculture University in building a brand and promoting the rice brand nationally and internationally.

The Department of Agriculture, Government of Telangana and Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural Univesity(PJTSAU) have signed an agreement with the Indian School of Business(ISB) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding in this regard.

Speaking on the occasion, Praveen Rao, Vice-Chancellor of PJTSAU, said that farmers faced the challenges of increasing cost of production and profitability.

“To improve the incomes of the farming community, we need to create food value chain for agricultural produce,” he said.

The three organisations would discuss and prepare a branding and marketing plan for the RNR 15048, which is marked by its fine grain and high yielding attributes. It can resist blast, a nagging problem that paddy faces. After the deliberations, the three organisations would submit their recommendations to the Telangana Government.

After a bumper Rabi harvest, the State has gone for an extended paddy area in the current Kharif season. As against the normal area of 27.25 lakh acres for the season, the farmers in the State has sown the staple crop in over 42.78 lakh acres. This is expected to still grow in the next week or so.

As it kicked off the regulated cropping system from this season, the State has asked the farmers to go for fine varieties of paddy in order to get additional incomes.