Hyderabad: After months of reeling under adverse climatic conditions that affected agriculture and allied activities during the previous BRS regime last year, smiles are back on the faces of farmers with the early onset of the southwest monsoon, prompting them to intensify their farming work.
The fields are witnessing hectic activity with farmers, including women, engaged in sowing paddy, cotton, maize, jowar and red gram. A majority of farmers started work on paddy in the last week of May, expecting that the monsoon would hit Telangana by mid-June.
“The last monsoon was disastrous due to less rainfall. These days, every farmer in our village is busy in his or her field,” said a farmer, R. Bala Goud, who is cultivating jowar in his two-acre land at Achampet in Mahbubnagar district.
He appreciated the Congress government for the timely supply of seeds and other required material in addition to continuous supply of power. He said if the rainfall continued to lash the state for a few days, farmers would set a crop production record.
Agriculture officials said 16 varieties of crops mainly paddy, cotton, maize, red gram and soya beans would be cultivated during ‘Vanakalam’ (Kharif) season. The department has proposed sowing in 144.4 lakh acres. Of this, paddy comprises 66 lakh acres, cotton 60 lakh acres, maize six lakh acres and red gram 5.6 lakh acres.
Singing Telangana folk songs in unison, farmers were seen attending agriculture activity. “We never expected that the monsoon would arrive so early. By God’s grace it has happened; and we are sowing paddy with ease,” said Jakkula Lingaiah Yadav, a farmer from Suryapet.
Officials said receiving the optimum quantity of rainfall was more crucial for agriculture than a deluge. The normal rainfall would percolate into the soil whereas heavy rainfall would wash away the soil and fertilisers and damage transplanted saplings.
Nizamabad district agriculture officer Wajid Hussain told Deccan Chronicle that paddy transplantation has been accelerated in 4.3 lakh acres out of 5.50 lakh acres of agricultural land in the district, while maize, soya beans and turmeric crops are cultivated in remaining 1.2 lakh acres.
He said farmers in Bodhan, Chandur, Yedpalli, Pothangal, Sathura and other mandals were mainly cultivating paddy and cotton, and other mandals in the district are opting for maize and turmeric. “The conjunctive use of resources instead of waiting for the irrigation projects to be filled with rainwater helped farmers to execute their work without any hurdles this time,” Hussain explained.
Using water drawn from 1.77 lakh submersible pump sets, the farmers started their work in the last week of May. The round-the-clock power supply enabled them to use water to their fields effectively.
P. Chengal Reddy, the chief adviser of the Consortium of Indian Farmers Association, underscored the need for implementing a holistic approach in providing better marketing of the crops produced by farmers.
On its part, the agriculture department has taken steps to ensure that farmers get quality seeds and fertilisers. Following complaints that some shopkeepers were selling spurious seeds, the department in coordination with the police constituted district-level task force teams and cracked the whip on such units.
For the last 45 days, the task force teams arrested 37 people for allegedly selling spurious seeds to farmers. Around 20 cases each were registered in Ramagundam and Komaram Bheem-Asifabad district, while five cases in Siddipet and four in Khammam.
Two cases each were booked in Rajanna Sircilla and Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri district after conducting raids on shops. Three separate cases in Nizamabad and one in Adilabad were registered against unlicensed shopkeepers. Senior officials said the raids would continue till completion of Kharif season.
They said a control room was set up at the police headquarters in Hyderabad for better coordination among the departments.
In weather-based agro-advisories, the Indian Meteorological Centre, Hyderabad, said the southwest monsoon entered some parts of Telangana on June 3.
The IMD has forecast light to moderate rains or thundershowers in different parts of the state. Farmers were advised not to stand under trees and don’t allow cattle, goats and sheep to take shelter under trees. It asked farmers to stay away from water bodies, electric poles and wires.
The IMD said parts of erstwhile Mahbubnagar, Warangal, Karimnagar, Khammam, Medak and Nalgonda received large excess rainfall from May 30 to June 5 while erstwhile Ranga Reddy district got excess rainfall and Adilabad, Hyderabad and Nizamabad, received normal rainfall. These districts received rainfall between 11 cm and one cm from May 30 to June 5.
