A bumper paddy crop is on cards in the current agricultural season as the cropped area has surpassed all expectations with a coverage of 49.10 lakh acres as on date which is 180% more than normal for the season. With just over 26 lakh acres in the same season last year, the paddy production was 47.14 lakh tonnes.
Unlike rain-fed crops, the paddy production was normally high in yasangi (rabi) because it is a water intensive crop and the irrigation was facilitated by canals, tanks and bore wells in the absence of rains. In these circumstances, the yield in yasangi last year was 64.16 lakh tonnes. But, such tonnage looked a close possibility in the first crop itself under rain-fed conditions.
Agriculture Commissioner B. Janardhan Reddy said 70% of paddy cultivation was of fine varieties which will fetch farmers a good price.
Paddy, cotton and red gram account for 1.18 crore acres of total cropped area of 1.29 crore acres in the State this season. While the coverage of paddy was 49.10 lakh acres, cotton was 59.28 lakh acres and red gram 10.56 lakh acres. Red gram replaced maize in the top three crops because the government discouraged the latter crop as it was produced in excess world over and the off take was also poor. Instead, the government suggested that the farmers sow red gram.
Mr. Reddy said the farmers responded well by sowing red gram in over 10.50 lakh acres against 6.98 lakh acres last year. This was 138% excess over season’s normal. Only such farmers who were traditional suppliers of maize for poultry and dairy farms and those who cultivated the crop for their livelihood to feed animals went for the crop. This was reflected in the figures as the crop was sown in over just 2.15 lakh acres against 9.35 lakh acres last year.
Cotton was grown so far over 59.28 lakh acres against 44.79 lakh acres last year (133% excess).
Mr. Reddy expected all irrigated dry crops, including cotton, red gram and maize, to do well because they got good wetting in the season. There were 64 rainy days from June to August which had never happened since 2004. The average rainy days in a season were 25 to 30.
He summarised a rainy day as one where the rain was uniformly 2.55 mm everyday on an average. That made a huge difference because it amounted to 60% to 70% more irrigated conditions over normal flooding.