Farm operations picked up momentum as Prakasam district received excess rainfall in June.
Bringing cheers to the farming community, weather officials predicted more rain under the influence of the low pressure area over Bay of Bengal. The weather system is likely to become well marked low pressure area during the next 24 hours.
Santamagaluru recorded 28 mm rainfall followed by Martur 16.2 mm and Ballikurava 10.4 mm.
Farmers completed sowing operation in 20,000 hectares taking advantage of the district receiving an average rainfall of 84.9 mm during June as against the normal rainfall of 58 mm, Agriculture Joint Director J. Muralikrishna told The Hindu .
Polycropping
With weather officials predicting 106 per cent rainfall, the crop coverage is expected to cross the normal extent of 2.35 lakh hectare during the kharif season.
“We are asking the farmers to go for polycropping to achieve double digit growth target,” he said.
Farmers have so far grown, among other crops, sesame (8,000 hectares), green gram (5,000 ha), green manure (5,000 ha), cotton (1,600 ha) and red gram (1,000 ha). The department expected the red gram coverage to go up to 90,000 hectares this year as against 76,000 hectares last year.
