GULBARGA: The cultivation of summer crops this year in the State has suffered a setback owing to the sudden fall in groundwater levels in many parts and an inadequate supply of water from major, medium and minor irrigation projects.

According to official sources, cultivation of summer crops has been completed on only 5.7 lakh hectares of land as against the target of 7.16 lakh hectares. They said crops had been grown on 6.29 lakh hectares of land during the same period last year.

The sources said that groundwater levels had fallen in many parts of the State owing to scanty rainfall during the monsoon.

The cultivation of maize, pulses, groundnut and sunflower was nearing completion, they said. The harvesting and threshing of rabi crops such as jowar, wheat, bengal gram and sunflower was in progress in most districts of North Karnataka. Inter-cultivation, weeding, water management and plant-protection measures were being carried out.

The sources said that minor incidents of "leaf miner" affecting groundnut crops had been reported from some parts of Gulbarga, Bellary, Raichur, Koppal, Bagalkot, Bijapur, Dharwad, Chitradurga, Tumkur and Davanagere districts. Plant-protection measures were being carried out in the affected areas, and chemicals for the purpose were being provided to farmers at subsidised rates.

On the preparations for the kharif season, the sources said that the Agriculture Department had begun meeting with fertiliser manufacturers and Union Government officials for ensuring an adequate supply of fertilisers during the season.

Similar meetings were also being held with seed producers and seed-supplying agencies, and a comprehensive seed supply plan had been prepared to stock seeds at all Raitha Samparka Kendras in order to meet the demand during the kharif season.

The sources said that the Agriculture Department was also preparing a contingency plan in case of a failure of rains, and had initiated discussions with scientists of the Dharwad and Bangalore centres of the University of Agriculture Science for preparing alternative cropping pattern plans using the latest and most suitable varieties of seeds.

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