Continued dry spell leaves Medak, Siddipet cotton farmers a worried lot

Farmers could not take up sowing of any other dry crops such as maize, red gram and other crops due to lack of adequate rainfall

Siddipet: The continuing dry spells in Siddipet and Medak districts have left a serious impact on cotton cultivation in both districts during the Vanakalam season.

While the Agriculture Department pegged the estimated cotton cultivation at 1.80 lakh acres, the Medak Agriculture Department had estimated it at 40,000 acres. However, farmers in Siddipet could sow only in 80,000 acres until June 30 while farmers in Medak could sow cotton just in 10,000 acres so far.

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The farmers could not take up sowing of any other dry crops such as maize, red gram and other dryland crops due to lack of adequate rainfall throughout June. Moreover, the seeds were not sprouting in whatever the area they had sown so far.

The farmers would have to sow two packets of cotton seeds on each acre. While each packet of BT cotton seeds costs Rs 864, the farmers need to spend nearly Rs 2,000 on cotton seeds alone. As they did not sprout, the farmers were going for second time sowing, spending an additional amount on the cultivation.

Since June was considered ideal for cultivation of cotton, the farmers feel that the time is running out for them. While agriculture officials estimated maize cultivation in 60,000 acres, the farmers cultivated maize only in 30,000 acres in Siddipet.

Adding to their woes, the uncertainty over filling of reservoirs by pumping in water from the Medigadda reservoir has cast a shadow on the farming sector in Siddipet for at least for this year.

Of the 5.50 lakh acres expected area under cultivation in Siddipet, agriculture officials estimated that the paddy would be cultivated in 3 lakh acres, cotton in 1.80 lakh acres, maize in 60,000 acres and red gram in 10,000 acres.

The cotton farmers in Siddipet bought seeds sufficient for only 1.10 lakh acres against estimated area of 18.0 lakh acres. However, the progress of the sowing of any crop was not optimistic until now.

Speaking to ‘Telangana Today’, a cotton farmer from Markook, Mallesh said they were finding it difficult to mobilise funds to buy seeds again as the sowing in June first week did not see any positive results.

Furthermore, he said that they did not get Rythu Bharosa or the promised loan waiver until now. The farmer demanded immediate release of Rythu Bharosa to save them at the time of crisis.