Farmers in Warangal hope for a bumper kharif this time

Farmers in Warangal hope for a  bumper kharif this time
x
Highlights

In the current season, the agriculture department has forecast that crops in an extent of about 5.5 lakh hectares would be taken up. There has been an increase of 1.03 lakh hectares this time in comparison to previous season, in which sowing of crops took place in an extent of 4.47 lakh hectares.

Warangal: As the monsoon is ready to set in the State, farmers and agriculture officials in the district are gearing up for kharif season with hopes on better crop yield prospects.

In the current season, the agriculture department has forecast that crops in an extent of about 5.5 lakh hectares would be taken up.

There has been an increase of 1.03 lakh hectares this time in comparison to previous season, in which sowing of crops took place in an extent of 4.47 lakh hectares.

Due to shortage of rainfall in the last season, there has been a fall of nearly 50, 000 hectares in terms of normal extent of land taken up cultivation in the district. The normal area of cultivation stands at 4.97 lakh hectares.

With the State and the central governments proposing to reduce the area of cotton crop the agriculture officials are advising the farmers to go for alternate crops like maize, soybean, red-gram, green-gram, and other pulses.

Agriculture department has been organising various programmes in the district educating the farmers on the need to reduce the area of cotton saying the demand for cotton has come down drastically in the international market.

According to the officials, usually cotton would be sown in an estimated 2.47 lakh hectares in Warangal district.

This we are planning to reduce by 20 to 30 percent in this season,’ said joint director agriculture D Usha.

The Chief Minister, K Chandrashekar Rao, himself has been asking the farmers to go for alternate crops. During recent ‘Mana Telangana-Mana Vyavasayam’ programme the farming community was explained the advantages of taking up pulses, she told The Hans India on Saturday.

According to the District Collector, V Karuna, it is planned to take up soybean, maize, red-gram, green gram and other pulses in about 1.50 lakh acres in the current kharif.
Seeds and fertiliser are made ready for distribution and conduct of soil tests have been completed achieving 100 percent target.

For the current season, the officials have estimated that paddy would be taken up in about 1.55 lakh hectares, maize in 65,000 hectares, green gram in 25,000 hectares, mirchi in 18,000 hectares, red-gram in 15,000 hectares, turmeric in 10,000 hectares and soybean in 5,000 hectares.

As part of their efforts to bring down cotton cultivation, the agriculture department has also reduced the supply of cotton seeds.

Initially it has been proposed to procure 14 lakh pockets of cotton seeds and later the number is reduced to eight lakh pockets.

Show Full Article
Print Article
Next Story
More Stories
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENTS