Andhra Pradesh

Total cultivable land poised to increase: Collector

Kakinada: The Agriculture Department is hopeful that the total cultivable area of all crops in the district will increase by 60,000 hectares to 3,02,000 ha mainly due to the creation of fresh ayacut by various irrigation projects and the prospect of surplus rainfall. Keeping this in view, an additional quantity (4,000 metric tonnes) of complex fertilizers is being stocked by the agricultural market committees to make the same available to farmers during the Kharif season and beyond, said Collector Gopalakrishna Dwivedi.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday , Collector Dwivedi and Joint Director of Agriculture T. Nandaiah said that some irrigation projects that were in the final stages of execution, including the Pushkar lift scheme, have already created additional ayacut.

The total acreage was poised to increase further on completion of all the schemes in the next few seasons. The projections of rainfall were good though the monsoon appeared to have slackened a bit in the last few weeks.

A sum of Rs. 3.06 crore was sanctioned for giving subsidy on purchases of modern equipment under the farm mechanisation scheme. A sum of Rs. 92 lakh has already been disbursed for the said purpose to 2,400 farmers. Collector Dwivedi said a paddy transplanter cum harvester costs Rs. 15 lakh and a nursery raiser Rs. 60,000. Many farmers were coming forward to buy these equipment undeterred by the cost factor as their farm operations would become easier and faster. Besides, the farm sector got a big boost technology-wise due to the district’s inclusion in the last phase of the Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) project.

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