Rabi sees rise in area under paddy cultivation

Hyderabad: The rabi season has witnessed a four-fold increase in area under paddy cultivation following good monsoon. It has gone up from 1.63 lakh hectares in 2015-16 to 5.48 lakh hectares in 2016-17, according to the latest figures available with the Agriculture Department.

“Bountiful rains filled the projects in most of the districts. Tanks also are brimming with good amount of water, contributing to increase in groundwater levels and resulting in increasing the area under cultivation during this season.

When compared to previous year, there is an increase of 103 per cent in terms of area sown,” said official sources.

Comparatively, the Kharif of 2016 saw drought and delayed rainfall resulting in only 7.31 lakh hectares of area sown as against the 9.86 lakh hectares normally sown during Kharif.

Amongst the other crops which saw an increase in area under cultivation are maize, Bengal gram, black gram, groundnut and chillies. Maize saw a sowing area of 93 percent (1.51 lakh hectares) as against the normal (1.63 lakh hectares). During the previous year, it recorded only 1.05 lakh hectares.

Bengal gram saw a tremendous increase of 158 per cent with 1.39 lakh hectares sown this season. During the previous year it was only 1.17 lakh hectares.

While ground nut saw 95 percent (season’s normal 1.52 lakh hectares) with 1.45 areas sown compared to 1.08 lakh hectares during the previous year. While on the other hand wheat continues to be a low priority crop in the State, as the area sown has further come down.

This Rabi only 0.02 lakh hectares of wheat was sown while normally the sown area of wheat is about 0.06 lakh hectares.