Farm operations for Vanakalam to take off on uncertain note

Farmers gearing up for season, are expected to go for cotton in a big way as early monsoon is expected to favour the crop.The government had targeted cotton in over 55 lakh acres this year.

Hyderabad: The skies have started opening up with the southwest monsoons making an early advent bringing cheer to the farmers in the State. But the preparatory operations for Vanakalam (Kharif) are set to get underway on an uncertain note on different counts.Farmers have been complaining about short supply in seed, especially the sought after varieties of cotton seed.

The delay in disbursal of the crop investment support has become another major concern. Even as the crop insurance coverage has been promised from Kharif this year, the State is yet to finalise the modalities for implementing it from the Vanakalam crops.

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The State had embarked on a ambitious Vanakalam programme this year targeting 1.51 crore acres, some eight per cent more than the 1.4 crore acres covered last year.

The monsoon has already entered southern districts of the State covering parts of Nalgonda, Mahabubnagar, Nagarkurnool and Jogulamba – Gadwal districts and many places started receiving rainfall.

The Vanakalam operations which usually take off towards the last week of June or first week of July, are expected to make a headway at least a week in advance this year.

Farmers gearing up for season, are expected to go for cotton in a big way as early monsoon is expected to favour the crop.The government had targeted cotton in over 55 lakh acres this year.

The cotton growers are facing a big scarcity of the sought-after cotton seed varieties. They are not evincing much interest in the brands that are available in the supply outlets in the market.

The area under paddy this season, which is the most preferred crop in the command area of almost all the major and medium irrigation projects, is expected to cover over 66 lakh acres this year as against 65.9 lakh acres last year.

Maize crop is targeted in over 6,00,000 acres as against 5.32 lakh acres during the same season last year.

Similarly, the area under jowar, which was raised in 5.32 lakh acres last year , was expected to increase in a big way. The area under the Chilli crop is expected to go up from 3.64 lakh acres to 3.7 lakh acres this time.

So far as crop investment support is concerned, the government had promised to scale it up from Rs 10,000 per acres to Rs 15000 per acre. The government is planning to restrict the direct benefit transfer (DBT) to small and marginal farmers.

The farmers received the crop investment assistance of Rs 10,000 per acre under Rythu Bandhu with unfailing regularity for the past eleven trenches. The implementation of last phase of Rythu Bandhu was marred by inordinate delays.

Even as the government had assured to disburse the Rythu Bharosha assistance by next month, the eligibility for the benefit is yet to be finalised.