Monsoon active in Krishna district; sowing activity picks up

Vijayawada: With monsoon getting active in recent days and many mandals of Krishna district getting rains for at least three days in a week, the hopes of farmers on cultivation of crops this kharif season are increasing in Krishna district.

After witnessing dry spell conditions till the second week of July, the weather conditions are improving and helping the farmers to sow the seeds for cultivation of crops. Sowing has been completed in nearly 40 per cent of the crop area in Krishna district by the end of the fourth week of July.

So far sowing is completed in 1,24,000 hectares as against normal crop area of 3.16 lakh hectares in Krishna district this kharif season. The farming community was worried till recently with dry spell conditions prevailing in the district in June and in the first two weeks of this month.

But, luckily, monsoon is getting active in the recent days. Moreover, the Pattiseema water released from Prakasam Barrage is also helping the farmers of delta region to take up sowing in many mandals of Krishna district.

Paddy is the main crop in Krishna district with normal cultivated area of 2,28,745 hectares. Paddy sowing is gradually increasing in recent days and it reached to 60,000 hectares in the district. Cotton is the second important crop for the kharif season with normal crop area of 48,227 hectares.

Cotton seeds were so far sown in 40,996 hectares. Normal crop area of sugarcane and chillies are 13,130 hectares and 10,838 hectares respectively. Sugarcane was sown in 13,000 hectares of area and chillies sown in only 1106 hectares.

Joint Director of Agriculture, Krishna district, T Mohan Rao, said the sowing was completed in 40 per cent of the normal crop area in Krishna district and hoped that more areas would be covered in the coming days as monsoon is getting active and Pattiseema waters were also released from Prakasam Barrage. Other crops in Kharif season are maize, green gram, black gram, red gram and groundnuts.