As expected, the cultivation of crops in the ongoing rabi (yaasangi) season, particularly that of paddy, in Telangana has gained momentum in the recent weeks in spite of the adverse impact of the cold wave conditions on the nurseries, and demonetisation.
The extent of cultivation has already crossed 9.5 lakh hectares against the agriculture department’s plans to cover 12.08 lakh hectares during the current rabi season, sowings/transplantations of which are expected to spill over into March. In the two previous years, it was only 5.5 lakh hectares and 6.7 lakh hectares, respectively by this time of the year. “We hope to achieve the season targets mainly with the help of paddy as the farmers are going for the water-intensive crop in spite of the government advice to prefer irrigated dry crops,” a senior official in the agriculture production wing stated. Thanks to good south-west monsoon this year (2016-17 water year), most of the water bodies have good water levels and in addition groundwater table has improved. Many tanks restored under Mission Kakatiya programme are holding good water and there is ample water for summer crops in several medium and major irrigation projects.
Admitting that “there was some impact of demonetisation initially on rabi cultivation” officials said the farming community has overcome it and the momentum in the extent of coverage is an indication. The extent of coverage with bengal gram, groundnut and maize has pushed up rabi cultivation so far, he explained and hoped that paddy would help achieve the targets now, as happened in 2014. The cultivation of rabi crops has been over 50 % to 100 % in 18 out of 30 rural districts, over 100 % in six districts and up to 50% in another 6 districts. The energy department is also gearing up to meet the demand from agriculture sector which is expected to peak during February-April period.
