Following welcome relief from the adverse weather conditions, which haunted the farmers in November, harvesting of paddy crop began in many parts of Krishna district.
Harvesting is in full swing now in Tiruvuru, Pamarru, Vuyyuru mandals and parts of Central Krishna district while stage is set to complete the kharif paddy harvesting within next three weeks. Since the standing crop, which was damaged in cyclone, requires at least a week to get dry, crop cutting is getting delayed in the most cyclone-affected mandals.
Delay in sowing of the saplings is the prime reason that impacted the crop that still requires a few weeks to attain the stage of crop cutting. In Krishna-Godavari delta, paddy harvesting began early and almost completed in East and West Godavari districts whereas the harvesting operations have just begun in Krishna district, one of the largest paddy producer in Andhra Pradesh. “Among the 30 Paddy Purchasing Centres (PPCs), as many as five centres have been opened in Tiruvuru and its surrounding areas in the first phase,” Krishna Joint Collector P. Usha Kumari has told The Hindu. According to an agriculture official, 92 PPCs will be opened across the district within couple of weeks in order to give the Minimum Support Price (MSP).
