The yasangi [earlier called rabi] activity which was slow till the Sankranti festival started picking up in the last few days and farmers are busy with paddy transplantations in the command area of major and medium irrigation projects and also under bore-wells.
However, in the tail end of the Sri Ram Sagar and the Nizam Sagar projects and also under a couple of medium irrigation reservoirs the activity is still slow due to problems in release of water.
At the beginning of the season, demonetization and farm labour problems hit the transplantation activity with farmers being unable to get money and coolies not showing interest in taking up work.
Normal area
Under normal circumstances, paddy is sown in 51,920 hectares [running average taken for the last five years] and as of now it is transplanted in 48,000 hectares.
“In the current yasangi paddy is likely to be sown in another 40,000 hectares and it may last next 20 days. In the last week the activity was hectic,” said Sreekar Babu, an Agriculture Officer at the District Agriculture Office here. He says that dip in night temperatures would delay transplantation as the growth of seedlings would be affected by the cold weather, what is technically called called transplantation shock. Therefore, farmers wait for the rise in temperature to transplant the paddy, he added.
Delays
Another factor for delay is that farmers are not using the transplantation machines, for various reasons. That apart, migration of farm coolies who come every year from Nalgonda district has come down this year. The irregular release of water from Nizam Sagar and Sri Ram Sagar resulted in the delay in the transplantation, former minister P. Sudarshan Reddy said. “As per my information not even 30 per cent of the sowing has been completed in the tail-end. Further, there is a lack of coordination among authorities, which has led to delay regular release of water,” he added.
