The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Kharif sowing delayed in several districts

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 28, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Kharif sowing delayed in several districts

Karnataka Bureau

139 of the 176 taluks in the State have received deficient rainfall

Sowing has taken place in 35 lakh hectares of land against the target of 74 lakh hectares
July witnessed the worst monsoon rainfall in the last five years

Delayed: Erratic monsoon has forced farmers to adopt a ‘wait and watch’ policy before taking up sowing operations.

BANGALORE: Good rain in the last few days has revived the hopes of farmers. The sowing of kharif food crops, pulses and oilseeds has been delayed in a majority of the districts owing to weak southwest monsoon.

The current month witnessed the worst monsoon rainfall in the last five years in Karnataka as well as other parts of the country (July 2002 was, however, worse than this year). From June 1 to July 22, the State received 241 mm of rainfall as against a normal 385 mm, a departure of minus 37 per cent. Of the 176 taluks, 139 received deficient rainfall.

In several districts, farmers are adopting a “wait and watch” policy before taking up sowing operations on account of erratic monsoon. The Government too is giving time till July 31 before operationalising contingency plans for late sown, short-duration and alternative crops in the regions hit by water scarcity.

However, the southern districts of the State have seen incessant rain during the last couple of days. Sowing had taken place on 35 lakh hectares of land against the target of 74 lakh hectares, according to officials in the Agriculture Department.

In view of the intermittent rain, a majority of the farmers in Mysore district are unsure whether to take up sowing of paddy that requires copious water, or reverting to semi-dry crops such as groundnut and ragi. Due to low water levels in the Kabini and Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) reservoirs, the Government has appealed to farmers to cultivate ragi, maize and sunflower crops in Mysore, Mandya, Chamarajangar and Kodagu districts.

In Gulbarga district, the kharif season this year was one of the worst with a majority of farmers not in a position to take up sowing of cash crops — black and green grams. The district received 75.3 mm rainfall against normal 219.9 mm (-66 per cent).

Sulieman Pasha, a farmer owning five acres of rain fed land in Nimbarga village in Aland taluk said: “I could not take up sesame crop this year owing to failure of rain. I am now banking all my hopes on red gram and sunflower.”

The area under the red gram and sunflower is likely to cross four lakh hectares and two lakh hectares respectively owing to change in the cropping pattern.

Malamma Rayappa Pujari, who owns a six-acre plot in Sharana Sirasagi village in Gulbarga taluk, lost all hopes of taking up any kharif crop due to erratic rains. “Rains in the third week of July have revived some hopes for taking up red gram,” she said.

The failure of rain has spoilt the prospects of getting a good crop in the rain-fed areas in Bellary district. The district has received 49.1 mm rainfall against normal 127 mm (minus 61).

The sowing operations had come to a standstill in most of the taluks. Sowing has been completed in 1.08 lakh hectares in Bellary district against the target of 3.94 lakh hectares, a mere 27.5 per cent.

According to B.Y. Srinivas, Joint Director of Agriculture of Bellary, jowar, maize, sunflower, tur dal and other crops, where the sowing was done earlier, had failed in some pockets, due to moisture stress. “Crops in about 22,000 hectares are facing moisture stress and have started withering,” he said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka

News Update

Stories in this Section