The government is not considering any proposal to waive farm loans. (Representational Image)The government is not considering any proposal to waive farm loans. (Representational Image)
Hyderabad: Months after reeling under adverse climatic conditions affecting agriculture and its allied activities during the previous BRS regime last year, smiles came back on farmers’ faces with the onset of south-west monsoon in advance prompting them to intensify their farming works.
The fields are witnessing hectic activity these days with farmers including women engaged in sowing works pertaining to paddy, cotton, maize, jowar and red gram crops. A majority of farmers started paddy sowing works in the last week of May hoping that the south-west monsoon will hit Telangana by mid-June.
Much to their luck, the monsoon arrived in advance forcing farmers to speed up their transplantation works. “It was a disastrous season during last monsoon due to less rainfall. But 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 in Achampet, Mahbubnagar district.
He appreciated the Congress government for timely supply of seeds and other required material in addition to continuous supply of power. He said if the rainfall continues to lash the State in the present manner for the next few days then farmers would be happier to generate a record crop production this season in the State.
Officials of Agriculture department said 16 varieties of crops mainly paddy, cotton, maize, red gram and soya beans among others would be cultivated during ‘Vanakalam’ (Kharif) season 2024. The department has proposed as many as 144.4 lakh acres of crops to be sown for vanakalam season.
Of the 144.4 lakh acres, paddy comprises 66 lakh acres while cotton 60 lakh acres, maize six lakh acres and red gram 5.6 lakh acres.
Singing Telangana folk songs in unison, farmers especially women are attending to agriculture activity briskly in their fields. “We never expected that the monsoon would arrive early this time. By God’s grace it happened and we are carrying out our paddy cultivation work with ease,” said a farmer Jakkula Lingaiah Yadav from Suryapet.
Officials said receiving optimum quantity of rainfall with quality was more crucial for agriculture instead of heavy to heavy rainfall. The normal rainfall would percolate into soil benefiting the agriculture activity whereas heavy rainfall would affect the soil causing damage to transplantation and erase fertilizers used by farmers.
With the completion of Lok Sabha elections on May 13, farmers now shifted their focus towards agriculture. Adilabad, Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Warangal, Khammam, Nalgonda and parts of erstwhile Mahbubnagar and Ranga Reddy district are witnessing brisk activity for the last few days, officials said.
Nizamabad District Agriculture Officer Wajid Hussain told Deccan Chronicle that paddy transplantation has been accelerated in 4.30 lakh acres out of 5.50 lakh acres agriculture land in the district with the advent of south-west monsoon while maize, soya beans and turmeric crops are cultivated in remaining 1.20 lakh acres.
He said farmers in Bodhan, Chandur, Yedpalli, Pothangal, Sathura and other mandals were mainly cultivating paddy while cotton, maize and turmeric in other mandals. “The conjunctive use of resources instead of waiting for the irrigation projects to be filled with rain water during monsoon helped farmers to execute their work without any hurdles this time,” Hussain explained.
Using water drawn from 1.77 lakh submersible pump sets, 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, Chief Advisor of Consortium of Indian Farmers Association, underscored the need for implementing holistic approach in providing better marketing facilities to the crop produced by farmers after putting in hard work extensively during Kharif.
On its part, the Agriculture department took various preventive steps to ensure that farmers get quality seeds and fertilizers during monsoon. Following complaints that some shopkeepers were selling spurious seeds, the department in coordination with the police department constituted district-level task force teams to crack the whip on shops that were selling spurious seeds and duping innocent farmers.
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 Komarambheem-Asifabad district while five cases in Siddipet and four in Khammam.
Two cases each were booked in RajannaSircilla 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 raid on shops selling seeds and fertilizers would continue till completion of Kharif season.
They said a separate control room was set up at the police headquarters in Hyderabad for better coordination among the departments.
Meanwhile, in weather based agro-advisories, the Indian Meteorological Centre, Hyderabad, said the southwest monsoon entered some parts of Telangana on June 3.
The IMD forecast light to moderate rains or thundershowers very likely to occur at many places over different parts of the State during the next three days. The maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to range between 28 degrees Celsius and 45 degrees Celsius, and 19 degrees Celsius to 29 degrees Celsius respectively.
In view of thunderstorms accompanied with lightning forecasts, farmers are 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.