Kadapa: Farmers keep high hopes on kharif yields

Kadapa: With the influence of south west monsoon several mandals in the district have received good rain fall and as a result adequate water is available in reservoirs like Gandikota, Brahma sagar, Chitravathi Balancing Reservoir, Kundu river and other water bodies. With the availability of water, farmers have started farm activities in the current kharif season.

According to agriculture officials, farmers have proposed to irrigate various traditional and commercial crops like paddy, groundnut, cotton, red gram, green gram, black gram, banana, jowar and sunflower in around 1.06 lakh hectares in kharif season in the district.

During kharif, generally, groundnut is cultivates in about 37,000 hectares. But in the current season, the area may increase by about 10,000 hectares as the administration is giving top priority to supply water for proposed crops. Ground nut is mainly cultivated in mandals like Rayachoti, Pulivendula, Kamalapuram, Jammalamadugu, Vempalle, Vemula, Chakrayapet and Rajampet mandals in the district.

Joint Director of Agriculture J Murali Krishna said to The Hans India that the administration is taking all steps to supply water for irrigation during the current kharif season.

He said that 30,000 quintals of groundnut seed are required for the district and out of this, 40 per cent of seeds have already been distributed. Moreover, 30,000 tonnes of fertilisers are kept ready for distribution in kharif season as against the requirement of 84,000 tonnes. He said this time, paddy is being irrigated in 40,000 hectares under Kurnool- Cuddapah canal. The JD said that there was no scarcity for either seeds or fertilisers to meet the needs of farmers.

"This year we have high hopes on securing good yield of crops as sufficient water is available in the various water bodies and the administration is making efforts for releasing water for agriculture operations,'' B Venkata Ramana Reddy of Vempalli in Pulivendula constituency said.