The farming community across Telangana appears to be owning up the regulated farming system introduced by the State Government from the current crop season as the early rains have fast-tracked the sowing of vaanakalam crops with about 11.5 lakh acres covered already.
As suggested by the government, farmers have restricted the cultivation of maize as it has been sown in less than only 8,000 acres so far and the cultivation of redgram has also been on the lines expected by the government with its sowing completed in about 1.02 lakh acres, just half-way through June.
Early sowing
“As expected, farmers across the State have taken to cotton farming in a big way with sowing completed in nearly 8.8 lakh acres already. Early sowing of not only cotton but every crop would have an advantage of facing lesser pest and insect attacks and improved yields”, a Joint Director monitoring the sowing operations said.
The senior official pointed out that sowing of crops was completed only in about 65,000 acres by the same time last year, but the early rains have helped farmers take up sowing on a large scale. According to officials of the Agriculture Department, other major crops whose sowing has been off to a good start include soyabean (about 61,000 acres), jowar (41,000 acres), paddy (19,500 acres) and greengram (15,000 acres). With 542 out of 563 rural mandals receiving either normal rainfall or above including excess rain in 154 mandal and large excess rain in 277 mandal as on Thursday, the sowing operations are expected to gain further momentum.
Ryot’s reaction
Asked whether they are comfortable with the regulated farming being promoted by the State government S. Manik Rao, a farmer of Sirgapur mandal in Sangareddy district, said: “When there is an assurance from the government that it would procure the crops raised as per its advice, there’s hardly any apprehension. Most of the farmers in our area are taking up cotton cultivation this season. Good returns realised in cotton last year have also encouraged some farmers to go for the crop, apart from other advantages of its cultivation such as no threat of crop damage from wild animals.”