The Andhra Pradesh Government has taken a major policy decision to restrict the area under paddy for the second crop in the State. The intention is to encourage farmers to grow commercial crops in the place of paddy in the second crop season commencing from January next year. According to Government’s assessment, the irrigated area under the second crop in the entire State would increase by two and a half times by this step because commercial crops utilise less water than paddy and more farmers would benefit with an additional crop. The State Government hopes that this step would be welcomed by farmers because the return from commercial crops is always larger than from paddy. The scheme would be implemented in the areas under the Krishna, the Godavari, the Tungabhadra and the Nagarjunasagar delta systems. Though the State Government has taken this step ostensibly to increase the irrigated area, it is obvious that it was afraid of a bumper paddy crop resulting in a glut in rice production and falling prices. Andhra Pradesh usually produces 48 lakh tonnes of rice and exports annually 8 lakh tonnes to deficit States like Kerala, Mysore, West Bengal and Maharashtra. Employing modern technology, all deficit States are trying to become self-sufficient and rice production has recorded significant increases there. There is a fear among farmers and officials in Andhra Pradesh that a major glut would cause prices to fall below the floor level. The position in Coastal Andhra delta districts is that the entire second crop is converted into boiled rice and exported outside the State. Last year, the State suffered at the hands of two major cyclones resulting in a fall in food production, of the order of 7 lakh tonnes. But the State was still able to fulfil its commitments to Kerala by exporting 2 lakh tonnes of rice. It is, however, too early to predict how the farmers in the delta districts accustomed to cultivating paddy would react to suggestions to change the cropping patterns and grow commercial crops. The State Government would obviously have to do a lot of persuasion to convince the farmers that the change is in their interests.
