Visakhapatnam: With just one month left for the kharif season to end and receiving good rainfall so far, another record-breaking kharif crop could be witnessed this year. Though the September month’s rainfall would be decisive, the positive forecast of IMD has pushed the expectation high.
As all the districts in Andhra Pradesh receiving good rainfall falling in ‘normal’ to ‘excess’ categories in the ongoing monsoon season, 72 per cent of the target kharif crop areas have been sown with about 26 types of crop.
According to the AP Agriculture planning wing officials, of the normal kharif season crop area of 40.47 lakh hectares in the state, 29.07 lakh hectares have been sown till August 30.
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Kharif season runs from June to September. And, the normal crop sown area is interpreted as the average of actual area sown in that particular period during the previous five years.
“The paddy and pulses sowing is going good and would speed up in September if the good rain continues. We had a record-breaking kharif crop yield last year and this year’s yield could beat that too if the positive rain forecast turns true. The plans of the department have worked well this year too,” said an official from Agriculture Department tracking the sowing progress in the state.
However, oil seed crops remain to be a challenge with about only 56% of the normal season area sown so far.
“The groundnut is the major chunk of oil seed and remains to be the main concern. However, the yield could also go high this year with 880kg of groundnut per 1 hectare against 450 kgs of last year. There could be marginal increase or decrease in the production,” reasoned the officials.
Krishna district has sown various crops on more than 23 per cent additional area than its normal while Nellore and Anantapur lowest with only 50 per cent and 61 per cent crop sowed than their normal as on date.
