With the kharif (vanakalam) agriculture season approaching fast, the State government has stepped up positioning of seed, fertilizer and other inputs in districts for estimated cultivation in about 1.4 crore acres.
The estimated requirement of seed for cultivation in 1.4 crore acres was 13.06 lakh quintals but the availability was about 18.29 lakh quintals since the State was home for many seed companies.
The preparations for the season were discussed at a meeting by Agriculture Minister S. Niranjan Reddy with departmental officials including Secretary M. Raghunandan Rao, Managing Director of Telangana State Seed Development Corporation K. Keshavulu and others on Tuesday. The Minister reiterated appeal to the farming community to take up crops having good demand in the market such as cotton, red gram and others.
He stated that cotton was likely to be raised in 70.05 lakh acres followed by paddy in 41 lakh acres and red gram in 20 lakh acres. Of the 1.4 lakh cotton seed packets (450 grams each) required for this season, 59.32 lakh packets were already positioned in districts.
The Minister also stated that the government was not supplying soyabean seed due to non-availability of quality seed on account of excessive and untimely rains in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh during the last kharif season. The seed was mostly sourced from these two States. He suggested that the farmers either grow alternative crops to soyabean or be extra careful while purchasing seed from private dealers.
Asking the field level officials to educate farmers from now on against taking up paddy cultivation on a large scale during the next rabi (yasangi) and instead going for crops such as groundnut, sesamum, mustard and others having good demand in the edible oil market.
To encourage cultivation of pulses, particularly redgram, the government had also decided to supply two kg of redgram seed per acre for growing it as an inter-crop with cotton and others. He also suggested that farmers not purchase seed, fertilizer and pesticide from unlicensed dealers and also insist on proper receipt for every purchase so that it could be helpful in getting compensation in case the seed proves to be spurious.