Veggie boom in Siddipet’s two villages boon for Hyderabad

SIDDIPET :  The pace has picked up for the development of Erravalli and Narsannapet villages in Markook mandal of the district into vegetable hubs, thanks to the system of drip cultivation being adopted in the villages. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had announced that vegetable cultivation would be boosted in villages around Hyderabad to ensure a steady supply of the greens to the city. In light of this, drip cultivation of vegetables has started on 2,733 acres of agricultural land farmed by 1,257 farmers in the two villages. The government is promoting the use of technology for vegetable cultivation through computers.

Hundreds of lorries of vegetables and fruits are being transported from the two villages to Hyderabad on a daily basis. The Chief Minister is distributing drips with 100 per cent subsidy with an intention to make these two villages role models for the rest of the country. Already, about 90 per cent of the farmers have started drip cultivation.

In additional support for farmers, they can call the water supply department any time. Officials have divided the 2,733 acres in the two villages into a total of 14 zones, and a bulk water supply sump has been set up in each zone. Through the sumps, water is released for drip cultivation. 

A chairman and five vice-chairmen have been appointed for each cluster to oversee the entire process, to immediately clear doubts raised by farmers and to monitor the entire water supply. Currently, farmers in these two villages are cultivating crops like tomato, sweet corn, maize, cucumber, coriander, spinach and watermelon through the drip system. The work of irrigating every acre in these villages is in full swing, as is the construction of distributor canals. 

Mandal agriculture officer P Nagender Reddy said the installation of drip system would be completed on 21,733 acres within ten days. He said, “Not every farmer has the ability to drill a borewell, so the entire water supply will be through bulk sumps. In just 30 minutes, a farmer can water the crop while the fertiliser will also be spread by the drip.” He said the water in the tank would be mixed with a fertiliser, which would flow directly to the saplings. He said by doing this, the wastage of water and fertilisers would reduce, which would help in getting a good yield. 

Narani Mallesam, a farmer from Erravalli village, said the amount of water used for cultivation of one acre paddy could now be used to cultivate crops in 25 acres using drip irrigation. Another farmer, K Balachandran, said about 100 farmers from his village had leased land from people living in Hyderabad and were cultivating vegetables.