Telangana ryots shift to alternative crops

Hyderabad: The State government’s repeated appeals to the farming community in the State appears to have yielded some result with farmers shifting to the cultivation of alternative crops to paddy during the ongoing Yasangi this year. Farmers have taken up cultivation of paddy in just 7,012 acres as of December 8 against the season’s normal […]

Hyderabad: The State government’s repeated appeals to the farming community in the State appears to have yielded some result with farmers shifting to the cultivation of alternative crops to paddy during the ongoing Yasangi this year. Farmers have taken up cultivation of paddy in just 7,012 acres as of December 8 against the season’s normal of 28,729 acres.

The State government has been creating awareness among farmers to take up cultivation of alternative crops after the Centre failed to clarify on paddy procurement from Telangana during Yasangi this year. Despite the uncertainty, farmers started sowing operations in 8.34 lakh acres as of December 8 against the normal cultivation area of 46.5 lakh acres for Yasangi season. For the corresponding date last Yasangi season, the total crop sown area was 5.19 lakh acres and farm operations were taken up in about 68.16 lakh acres by the end of the season.

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Interestingly, cultivation of other crops such as maize, jowar and other millets along with pulses including Bengal gram and black gram have increased significantly. As against 38,280 acres cultivated as of December 8 last year, maize crop is being cultivated in about 94,080 acres this year. For the corresponding date, cultivation of jowar has increased from 18,205 acres last year to 25,479 acres this year. Sweet corn and ragi, which had negligible cultivation area last year, are being cultivated in about 469 acres and 477 acres respectively, an Agriculture Department official told ‘Telangana Today’.

Cultivation of pulses too has increased significantly with Bengal gram being cultivated in about 2.7 lakh acres as of December 8 this year against 2.51 lakh acres during the corresponding period last year. Similarly, the crop area of black gram increased from 20,655 acres last Yasangi to 56,560 acres this Yasangi season as of December 8. Overall, the cultivation of pulses has grown up to 3.42 lakh acres this year when compared to 2.81 lakh acres last year (as of December 8). Total pulses crop sown area for Yasangi 2020-21 was 4.59 lakh acres.

Meanwhile, the cultivation of oilseeds has nearly doubled from 1.5 lakh acres as of December 8 last year to 3.11 lakh acres now with groundnut farming alone accounting for 2.87 lakh acres this year. Farmers have also taken to the farming of fodder and green manure crops on a massive scale. While fodder and green manure crops were cultivated in 18,759 acres during the entire Yasangi season last year, farmers already commenced the cultivation of these crops in around 42,964 acres.

“Unlike previous seasons, paddy cultivation for this Yasangi season has been considerably under control. Farmers were uncertain about the sale of their crops during the Covid pandemic over previous seasons and took up paddy cultivation on a large scale. However, they appear to be shifting back to other commercially viable crops which is a welcoming development,” the official said.

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