Andhra Pradesh - Karimnagar   

Karimnagar poised for a paddy boom

Staff Reporter

Area of cultivation for rabi reaches 3.5 lakh hectares as against the usual 1.5 lakhs

KARIMNAGAR: Karimnagar is fast galloping into the list of major rice producing districts in the State, if one goes by the expected production here this rabi season.

Thanks to the abundant rainfall and filling of all irrigation tanks and recharging of ground water table, paddy cultivation has increased manifold in the district. Against the normal area of cultivation of 1.5 lakh hectares during rabi, this time it has already reached 3.5 lakh hectares.

Paddy cultivation had already crossed about 1.9 lakh hectares during this season and is expected to reach a total of over 2 lakh hectares.

If the SRSP flood flow canal project, Mid Manair Dam (MMD) reservoir and the Sripada sagar project (Yellampalli) are completed, the area of cultivation will further increaseand transform Karimnagar district into rice bowl of Andhra Pradesh because of fertile soil in the region.

Majority of the farmers have sown `A'grade paddy, which has good demand in the open market.

Talking to The Hindu here on Tuesday, Collector M V Satyanarayana said that the paddy production was expected to reach over 10 lakh metric tonnes during this rabi season.

Procurement plan

He also said that they had chalked out strategies for procurement of about 2 lakh metric tonnes of paddy with the help of self-help group members from the farmers by providing minimum support price. He said that during the kharif season the SHG members have procured about 80,000 metric tonnes of paddy.

He added that maize cultivation in the district was also yielding more profits to farmers with the market price reaching about Rs. 700 per quintal against the MSP of Rs. 540 per quintal.

During this rabi season, the farmers have cultivated maize in 50,000 hectares.

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Karimnagar poised for a paddy boom

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