HYDERABAD: Disclosing that agricultural and horticultural crops were under cultivation in around 65 lakh acres across the State, Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy on Wednesday urged farmers to go for short-duration crops, and for seed broadcasting methods to sow paddy, so that input costs could be reduced.
He was addressing a review meeting at the Secretariat with Agriculture Commissioner M Raghunandan Rao, Special Commissioner Hanumant Zendage and other officials.
Niranjan Reddy said that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao chaired a high-level meeting to review the water availability in all the reservoirs under the Godavari and Krishna basins and that despite the delayed monsoons, there have been normal rains this month, and that farming activity has gained pace.
Observing that there was a favourable condition for growing oil palms this year, the Minister said that of the 2.5 lakh acres targeted for oil palm cultivation this year, saplings have been planted in 11,000 acres and farmers have registered for planting saplings in another 75,000 acres.
He said that there was still time for sowing red gram, cotton and maize till the end of this month and that the required fertilisers and seeds have been stocked well in advance.
Meanwhile, the report of the agriculture department released on Wednesday revealed that there have been excess rains in Sangareddy, Siddipet and Vikarabad districts, and normal rains in 23 districts, with seven districts recording deficit rainfall since June 1.
Cotton cultivation has seen a considerable jump this kharif, being grown across 37,98,128 acres, a jump of 75.07 per cent compared to the normal sown area.
Paddy has also seen an increase of 15.94 per cent, with the current year area sown being 7,94,657 acres, as against 4,97,819 acres sown by this time last year.
Soybean has also seen an increase from 3,18,090 acres by this time last year, to 4,05,681 acres as of Wednesday. Maize has seen an increase from 2,23,109 acres to 3,00,887 acres.