Farmers undergoing severe hardships due to deficit rains

Nizamabad: In view of the deficit rainfall this season, farmers in the district who cultivate soya beans are having a tough time. As soya bean cultivation could be cultivated with fewer amounts of labour and investment, large number of farmers have been showing keen interest in sowing soya bean seeds for the last ten years.

As soya bean cultivation is dependent on rainfall, even those farmers who do not have access to bore wells and motor pumps have also started sowing the crop.

The officials of the Agriculture Department prepared estimates to cultivate crops in 9, 429, 375 acres of land this year. Among these, soya beans could be cultivated in 3, 62,500 acres in the district depending upon the rainfall. Keeping this in view, they distributed 1.25 lakh soya been seeds through various cooperative societies to the farmers on subsidy.

With the start of the Kharif season, the farmers decided to sow the soya crop in 1.50 lakh acres of agricultural land though the rainfall was insufficient.

However, unless there is adequate amount of rainfall, the soya seeds do not sprout. As a result, the farmers are a worried lot and they are spending anxious moments waiting desperately for the rains. There was a glimmer of hope when the sky was cloudy but their hopes were dashed when the clouds cleared away.

With the delay in the monsoon, the kharif cultivation might be further delayed. Generally, it is cultivated from June 15 to July 15. Till now, there was only 36 per cent of cultivation. It takes 90 days for the crop to yield, yielding 10 to 12 acres of quintals of soya seeds on each acre.

During the last 18 days, there was scattered rainfall at some places only six times. Although in the month of June, there should be rainfall of 20 cm, only 8 cm of rainfall was recorded till now. As a result, the soya seeds have withered away without sprouting and they were also being eaten up by ants.

Speaking to The Hans India on Tuesday, one of the farmers Rajanna bemoaned that they were highly distressed as their soya crop has withered away due to the deficit rainfall that was recorded in the district. He said that they had hoped for a good yield this year. Now, they have no other option but to plough their lands again destroying the soya crop.

Another farmer Chinnaiah lashed out at the officials of the agricultural department for giving false and misleading information. He said that they told them that there would bountiful rainfall this season and this made them to sow soya seeds on a large scale in their lands.

Another farmer Jithender Reddy from Machharla village of Armoor mandal said said that the district received below normal level rainfall during June this year.

The officials of the Agricultural and meteorological department deceived them and did not create proper awareness regarding cultivation of crops.

Joint Director of Agriculture Narasimha said that on the request made by large number of farmers, officials have examined the soya bean seeds in the fields.

He said that works relating to kharif cultivation could be speeded up even if there was moderate rainfall in the district. The woes of farmers were taken up with the higher officials at the State level, he added. As the deadline for Kharif cultivation is July 15, farmers have kept their fingers crossed.

By:R Bhoopathi