With monsoon due to arrive soon, and with intermittent rains hitting the district, officials are gearing to motivate farmers to sow their crop scientifically to help reap rich harvests this kharif season.
As per estimates, in the current season the Agriculture Department has forecast that crops in to an extent of about 5.5 lakh hectares would be cultivated. There has been an increase of 1.03 lakh hectares this time compared to last year where 4.47 lakh hectares was cultivated.
Decline
Due to shortage of rainfall last season, nearly 50,000 hectares less are being cultivated. Officials have been discouraging farmers from opting for cotton, and instead wanted them to plant crops such as maize, soya bean, redgram, and other pulses.
The Agricultural Departments has been organising awareness meetings across the district telling farmers that cotton would fetch less returns as the demand in the international market was down, and they would incur losses.
It was better to grow vegetables and pulses which assure expected returns.
According to officials, cotton would be sowed on 2.47 lakh hectares in the district. “We want to reduce that by 20 to 30 per cent this kharif,” said joint director, Agriculture, D. Usha.
Speaking to The Hindu , Collector Vakati Karuna said they are planning to take up cultivation of soybean, maize, redgram, green gram and other pulses on about 1.50 lakh acres this kharif.
Seeds and fertiliser were made available for distribution and conduct of soil tests have been completed to achieve the percent target.
For the current season, according to estimates, paddy would be taken up in about 1.55 lakh hectares, maize on 65,000 hectares, green gram on 25,000 hectares, chillies on 18,000 hectares, redgram on 15,000 hectares, turmeric on 10, 000 hectares, and soybean on 5,000 hectares.
