Andhra Pradesh

Ryots plunge into preparations for kharif

Countdown: Land preparation before the arrival of monsoon under way in Jainad mandal.

ADILABAD: No sooner the business of byelections ended, farmers plunged into final land preparation before the monsoon sets in. The coming crop season is also expected to be favourable to the farmers in Adilabad district where the net area under Bt cotton is expected to increase further this year.

“About 10,000 hectares of area is expected to be added this year to the previous year’s 2.1 lakh under cotton cultivation. Farmers are likely to go in for the improved Bt2 variety because of the success of the genetically modified crop last year,” predicted Adilabad Agriculture Officer (AO) C. Narsingu.

About the availability of Bt cotton seeds, he said about 3 lakh packets are already available in the market against a demand of about 6.8 lakh packets of the two varieties of the Bt.

Similarly, expectation of a good monsoon will also increase the paddy area to its potential. Last year, about half the 60,000 hectares in the paddy cultivating area went abegging because of meagre rainfall.

Area under cultivation of soyabean, another major crop here, is however, unlikely to increase than last season’s 70,000 hectares. Despite the subsidy offered by the Government the increase in price of soya seeds is a cause of worry to the farmer. Earlier, soya seeds sold for Rs. 23.95 per kg and the Government shouldered the burden to the extent of Rs. 11.90 as subsidy. Now, the price of a kg of soya seed has increased to Rs. 33.70 with the Government offering a subsidy of Rs. 16.70 amounting to almost 50 per cent on it.

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