Mysuru district in-charge Minister H.C. Mahadevappa said here on Saturday that the Irrigation Consultative Committee (ICC) meeting will be convened shortly to decide on discharge of water from the dams for crops.
He was speaking to mediapersons in the city after distribution of seeds to farmers. Mr. Mahadevappa said this will enable the farmers to take up or plan for paddy cultivation. However, he urged the officials to encourage farmers to opt for short-duration varieties instead of long-duration variety as the climatic conditions were not conducive for long-duration crops given the vagaries of monsoon. He said sowing long-duration variety of paddy could affect the crop yield and have a negative bearing on the farmers income.
The Minister said though the ICC meeting has not been convened, the Irrigation Department had already started discharging water to canals to enable the waterbodies downstream to be replenished.
Mr. Mahadevappa said sowing has been completed on 2,11,170 hectares of land against the target of 3,97,879 hectares and the coverage was 53% of the target area in the district. Of this, paddy cultivation has been taken up on 1,03,200 hectares, ragi on 63,525 hectares, maize on 36,140 hectares, cotton on 42,900 hectares, and tobacco was cultivated on 66,335 hectares. Other crops including various grains, sunflower and sugarcane have been cultivated on nearly 60,000 hectares.
As far as seeds were concerned, there was no scarcity and the total seed requirement for Mysuru district was 88,786 quintals against which the available stock was 88,930 quintals. The Minister said that seed distribution to farmers will be through K-Kisan website and this will enable the authorities to keep a track on the extent of land held by a farmer and the quantity of seeds being procured by him. It will help prevent misuse or hoarding of seeds, he added.
With respect to fertilizers, the requirement for the district is 1.27 lakh metric ton against which the availability was 1.28 lakh metric tons. Of this, 0.866 lakh metric ton had already been distributed to the farmers, he said.
With respect to monsoon, there was a deficiency of 17.61% in Mysuru district but this is construed as normal rains under IMD parameters. The district has received 166.5 mm of rainfall against the long period average of 202.1 mm for the period June 1 till July 27.
Dasara preparation
In reply to a question on Dasara, the Minister said the Dasara High Powered Committee will meet under Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in Bengaluru on July 31 and take a suitable decision. The Minister was ambivalent on whether it would be a grand or a low-key affair this year.
However, he said certain sectors like tourism had to rebound post-pandemic and efforts will be made to give it a boost and a decision taken at the high powered committee meeting.
Joint Director of Agriculture Chandrashekar and others were present.
