Soya bean crop, which is cultivated extensively in various parts of Karimnagar district, withered due to the prevailing dry weather conditions and partly due to unseasonal rains in the first half of September, causing huge loss to the farmers.
Following a bumper harvest in the last kharif season and good minimum support price of more than Rs 3,000 per quintal , farmers cultivated soyabean crop this kharif too expecting to reap riches. Unfortunately, the bad weather conditions shattered their hopes. In the last kharif season, soyabean was cultivated in 5,225 hectares but in this season, farmers cultivated soya bean in 45, 758 hectares due to good demand.
Before the start of kharif, the farmers had formed serpentine queues for the collection of soyabean seeds provided on subsidy by the government. The crop was cultivated in June and July. However, following the prevailing dry weather conditions in the month of August and unseasonal rains in the first week of September had caused extensive damage to the soyabean crop and started withering away.
Usually, the soyabean crop production would be around 6 to 14 quintals per acre. But, the farmers are worried lot over the decline of production to less than three quintals per acre. The farmers had invested more than Rs 12,000 per acre for cultivation of soya bean but are unlikely to get even Rs 5,000 per acre due to poor yield.
Several farmers complain that the crop failed due to supply of poor quality of seeds, the Agriculture Department authorities say that the crop withered due to change in the climatic conditions and pest attack. The crop was sown in June and there were no rains till September first week. Besides, the dry weather conditions had affected the growth of the crop, they argued.
