Don’t Rush Into Planting, Sporadic Rains Can Play Spoilsport, Farmers Told

Hyderabad: The agriculture department is urging farmers not to rush into planting crops after the first rain of the monsoon season, amidst serious concerns on uncertainties on just how the rainy season will play out because of possible impact of El Nino phenomenon.

“We are asking farmers not to plant any crops until there is at least 50 to 70 mm of rain, and that too only after they are confident that there is significant moisture in the soil to support the crop. The current predictions are that the rains will spread to the rest of the state in the next week or so and farmers should approach planting with some caution,” Agriculture Commissioner Dr B. Gopi said.

With around 60 per cent of cropped area of Telangana depending on rain, and farmers raising rainfed crops in this vast area, the contingency plans for this year take into account delays not just in the setting in of the monsoon, but the continuation of rainfall too. “We are requesting farmers to adopt a wait and watch attitude and to the extent possible choose irrigated dry crops,” he said.

As the rain either starts, or gets delayed, the department has made plans to juggle the availability of seeds for alternative crops the farmers can choose to grow as the period from planting to harvest gets shorter, depending on how the rains start and continue.

In some districts, however, farmers have started purchasing urea through the fertiliser app of the department and, as on Friday, around 3 lakh farmers have used the facility. “The urea sales are also an indication for us where the agriculture operations are beginning, for instance, there has been some good demand for urea in Nizamabad, Kamareddy and parts of Warangal,” Dr Gopi said.

Though more than half of the normal cropped area – around 130 lakh acres — in Telangana during Kharif falls under rainfed category, there are also serious concerns over how the to major rivers, Krishna and Godavari behave this year as rains in their catchment areas are expected to be poor. “We are also closely watching what is happening in their catchments in Maharashtra and Karnataka as the inflows in the rivers will have a bearing on agriculture too,” Dr Gopi said.