HIGH-LEVEL MEETING: Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, Minister for Agriculture Bandeppa Kashempur, Minister for Housing D.T. Jayakumar and Public Works Minister H.D. Revanna at a meeting in Bangalore on Tuesday. — Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

BANGALORE: A crisis is looming large in the agricultural sector as continuing drought has affected about standing crops in 3.91 lakh hectares of land spread over eight districts of the State. If rain continues to play truant till July 31, the situation can assume serious proportions and about 50 per cent of the sown area will be affected.

Addressing presspersons after a meeting of officials of the Agriculture, Cooperation and Revenue departments, Minister for Agriculture Bandeppa Kashempur said 40 per cent to 45 per cent of standing crops had been damaged following deficit rainfall in Bidar (51,000 hectares affected) Chamarajanagar (6,000 hectares), Bellary (97,000 hectares), Koppal (1.04 lakh hectares), Gulbarga (55,000 hectares), Bijapur (31,000 hectares), Bagalkot (26,000 hectares) and Raichur (reduction in yield) districts.

As many as 101 tanks in Bangalore Rural, 172 in Kolar, 188 in Tumkur, 76 in Haveri, 130 in Gulbarga, 38 in Koppal, 42 in Raichur, 198 in Belgaum, 109 in Dharwad, 88 in Bijapur and 76 tanks in Bidar had not received water as on July 15, the Minister said.

Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy presided over the meeting. Chief Secretary B.K. Das and Additional Chief Secretary and Development Commissioner A.K. Agarwal were present.

Conditions were severe in Chamarajanagar, Gulbarga, Bidar, Hassan and Raichur districts from June 1 to July 19. Mr. Kashempur said 16 districts, including Bangalore Urban, Bangalore Rural, Kolar, Tumkur, Mysore, Mandya, Bellary, Koppal, Raichur, Gulbarga, Bidar, Bagalkot, Bijapur and Gadag, received scanty rainfall in July.

Rain-fed sowings in some of those districts were held up for want of adequate rainfall. The Drought Monitoring Cell officials had forecast that the State would get good rain in the next 10 days, he said.

Rain-fed crops such as greengram, blackgram, redgram, soyabean, sesamum, jowar, bajra and maize were under moisture stress in Gulbarga, Bidar, Raichur, Koppal, Mandya and Tumkur districts owing to continuous dry weather. Withering of flowers was observed in blackgram and greengram in Gulbarga and Bidar districts.

About 44.19 lakh hectares of land had been sown against the target of 74.02 lakh hectares of land in the kharif season. Normal coverage by second week of July stood around 35.28 lakh hectares of land.

Instruction

District in-charge Ministers, deputy commissioners and district-level agriculture officials had been instructed to submit detailed district-wise reports on withering of crops and come out with contingency plans, the Minister said.

Nursery preparation, transplantation of paddy and sowing of jowar, ragi, maize, bajra, greengram, redgram, blackgram, cowpea, groundnut, sesamum, sunflower, castor, soyabean and cotton were taken up wherever adequate rainfall occurred in both rain-fed and irrigated areas.

The Government had distributed seeds at subsidised rates to 16.28 lakh farmers estimated at Rs. 82.88 crore, Mr. Kashempur said.

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