Lakhs of farmers in Raichur district who had suffered heavy losses last year thanks to pink bollworm pest that devastated their grown Bt cotton fields just before the harvest are happy that their decision to switch from cotton to red-gram this year proved to be a good one. Sown on time thanks to early onset of monsoon, the red-gram crop is opulently standing on vast tracts of fields across the rural area.
Since the fear of recurrence of pink bollworm pest had driven the farmers to give up cotton and undertake red-gram cultivation, the area under red-gram cultivation has expanded from 40,000 hectares in the last kharif season to 96,000 in the current season. Similarly, the area under cotton cultivation has shrunk from 60,000 hectares to 43,000 hectares in the same period.
The farmers were upset when their healthy red-gram crop began to sear due to heat stress caused by deficit monsoon in August and first half of September. Their faces, however, bloomed, just as their crop did, in the second half of September when their fields received satisfactory rainfall.
"My red-gram crop has grown beautifully, just as others. I am expecting an yield of at least 7 quintal an acre. Hope, I recover the loss that I incurred last year in the cotton cultivation," a farmer from Ashapur village.
Uncertain price
Many farmers, however, are apprehensive about uncertain prices of red-gram crop this year. The crop that had seen as high price as Rs. 10,000 a quintal last year, is currently being sold at Rs. 4990 - Rs. 6,500 a quintal.
"With arrival of freshly harvested crop in December, the prices are likely to drop further. We may have to open red-gram procurement centres and buy the crop at Minimum Support Price (MSP) in the event of price cash,” Dr. M. Kiran Kumar, Joint Director of Agriculture, said.
Speaking to The Hindu , Padmayya Naik, Managing Director of Karnataka Red Gram Development Board, said that he would shortly write a letter to Government on the matter.
"We are going to discuss the matter in the meeting of Board of Directors and subsequently write a letter to the government. We will open procurement centres across red-gram growing areas and purchase the crop at MSP in the event of price crash. At present, the MSP for red-gram is Rs. 5050. It may be increased if the Union Government offers more financial support," he said.
