VIJAYAWADA: Agriculture productivity in the State during 2019-20 has increased by 13 per cent when compared to 2018-19 Kharif, thanks to the rains during August-September.
In June and the first three weeks of July, there was no rain and everyone thought monsoon was a failure and there will be a foodgrain crisis in the State. But, everything changed from the last week of July. Intermittent spells of rains that continued till October augurs well for the agriculture sector in the State.
“There was no increase in the extent of the land cultivated in the State during the period, but the copious rains along with recharged groundwater and availability of irrigated water have created a conducive atmosphere for the agriculture production and yield has increased by a good margin,” MVS Nagireddy, vice-chairman of Andhra Pradesh State Agriculture Mission, told TNIE.
He said paddy production has increased from 78.65 lakh tonnes in 2018-19 to 78.68 lakh tonnes in 2019-20. Yield per hectare has increased from 5,029 kg in 2018-19 to 5,166 kg in 2019-20. Significant improvement was observed in groundnut and cotton. The yield of groundnut increased from 484 kg per hectare to 1,035 kg per hectare, while the yield of cotton has increased from 1,224 kg per hectare in 2018-19 to 1,713 kg per hectare in 2019-20.
Similarly, chilly production increased from 4.51 lakh tonnes in 2018-19 to 6.28 lakh tonnes in 2019-20, while yield per hectare improved from 3,142 kg to 4,615 kg. The total foodgrain production of 15 different crops increased from 106.51 lakh tonnes in 2018-19 to 120.43 lakh tonnes in 2019-20, a total increase of 13 per cent. “We hope for better production during Rabi 2020 and have started taking measures for seed procurement,” Nagireddy said.