Farmers have responded well to the call of the government not to cultivate paddy in the current rabi as the Centre had refused to purchase the stocks from the State in the season.
The sowing of paddy in rabi was generally unpredictable and continued till February depending on availability of water but a fairly a large number of farmers completed it by December 20. However, it was found this time that sowing was taken up in only four per cent of the normal cropped area till Wednesday
A report of agriculture department said the sowing of paddy took place on 1.18 lakh acres against the normal of 31.01 lakh acres. On the other hand, the sowing of pulse crops (116 per cent) and groundnut (102 per cent) picked up pace.
Meanwhile, the agricultural market yards across the State did brisk business in cotton as the prices were well over the minimum support price of ₹6,025 a quintal. The farmers on Thursday disposed of the produce to private traders with a maximum price of Rs 8,805 a quintal at Warangal, ₹8,800 a quintal at Jammikunta, ₹8,650 at Adilabad and ₹9,100 at Khammam. The minimum prices were around ₹6,830 a quintal.
Last year when the MSP was only ₹5,825 a quintal, the private traders purchased the produce at a minimum of ₹6,000 a quintal and maximum of ₹9,090 a quintal. The Cotton Corporation of India had not entered the market last year but set up procurement centres in 2020 when the prices were as low as ₹2,500 a quintal and a maximum of ₹5,550 a quintal.