Prakasam farmer produces 25 bags of paddy with Rs 5000 expenditure

Giddalur: A farmer from the drought-hit Prakasam district proved again that reducing the expenditure is also a type of earning income in agriculture. The farmer produced 25 bags of paddy in just 70 cents of land by spending a mere Rs 5000 for the crop. Many farmers from the surrounding areas are being inspired by him and his practices and are planning to execute the same from the next season.

Chilakala Ankireddy is a 74-year-old farmer from Mundlapadu village in Giddalur mandal in Prakasam district. As the area he is living in a rain shadow area and not under any irrigation project, raining is a rare sighting and thus the groundwater levels deplete year by year.

Fed up with the losses in the agriculture and waste of efforts, he kept just 1.5 acres for himself and gave the remaining to tenant farmers a few years ago. He speared 80 cents of land for the cotton and sown paddy in the remaining 70 cents and practiced revolutionary farming methods.

He is cultivating Nandhyala Masura variety of paddy and utilized the 250 kgs gypsum distributed for free by the government and bought 100 kgs of urea and 50 kgs of muriate of potash on the farm. Without using any pesticides further, he received 25 bags of paddy in that 70 cents in the last few seasons and is expecting more this year.

Ankireddy said that he is proud to produce more paddy with less expenditure and only using the required chemical nutrients but without any pesticides. He said that he is following the tips and tricks in agriculture shared and discussed by experts on the radio.

He said that it is only due to the strength in the crop that it survived the incessant rains hit the area last week.