Kharif crops sown in 25% of planned area of 140.12L acres

Cotton is sown in 26L acres out of 34.35L acres sown so far

With the favourable weather conditions present in most parts of the State this monsoon season so far, the farming community has taken up sowing of kharif (vanakalam) crops in about 25% of the planned area so far with nearly 86% of the sown area covered by cotton crop.

According to Minister for Agriculture S. Niranjan Reddy, kharif crops have been cultivated in about 34.35 lakh acres out of the 140.12 lakh acres planned for the season. Of the crops sown so far, cotton is sown in 26.05 lakh acres and redgram in 3.18 lakh acres.

Among other crops, greengram is sown in about 50,000 acres, paddy in 96,000 acres, maize in about 1 lakh acres, vegetables in 87,000 acres and plantation, fruit and other horticultural crops in about 5.7 lakh acres.

The Minister expressed satisfaction over the fact that the farming community have taken the government advise on the cultivation of cotton and redgram crops on a large scale and reiterated the request to reduce paddy cultivation during the season.

Of the 25.5 lakh tonnes of all fertilizer needed for the kharif season, 8.38 lakh tonnes have been made available so far, including 4.35 lakh tonnes of urea. He instructed the officials to follow-up the arrival of fertilizer allocated for July month from different countries and units within the country along with taking steps to transport fertilizer from different ports in time.

The Minister stated that ₹7,360.41 crore investment support under the Rythu Bandhu scheme has been credited into the bank account of about 60.84 lakh farmers so far. On the spurious seed, Mr. Niranjan Reddy said a total of 325 criminal cases were registered and 518 persons were arrested so far for their alleged involvement in the sale of spurious seed.

The task force teams comprise the police and Agriculture department officials have seized about 1,185 tonnes of spurious seed worth ₹25.7 crore and stopped sale of another 2,372 tonnes of seed worth ₹78 crore for quality and other problems.

Meanwhile, the average rainfall recorded in the State so far till end of June is 194.55 mm against the normal of 130 mm with Adilabad recording most at 318.7 mm and Wanaparty receiving the lowest of 76.8 mm. Of the 594 mandals, including 16 in Hyderabad, large excess (over 60% of normal) rainfall has been recorded in 239 mandals.

Excess (20% to 59% above nomal) rainfall in 163 mandals, normal in 136 mandals, deficient (20% to 59% below normal) in 54 mandals and large deficient (60% to 99% below normal) in 2 mandals.

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