Impacted by heavy rains and floods, the cropping pattern this Kharif season has ducked the plans of Agriculture Department with paddy poised to reach a record extent with rains affecting the cotton cultivation adversely while abundant availability of ground and surface water is encouraging farmers go for paddy extensively.
In its kharif-2022 plan, the Agriculture Department has estimated the extent of cultivation at 142 lakh acres (1.42 crore acres) with cotton in over 70 lakh acres, paddy in up to 50 lakh acres and redgram about 15 lakh acres as major crops. The total extent as on September 1 has crossed 128.21 lakh acres with paddy transplanted in 58.29 lakh acres, cotton in 48.96 lakh acres and redgram in 5.55 lakh acres.
Cultivation of paddy is likely to go up further with the transplantation going up till the month-end. Its extent till September 1 is second only to the record extent achieved last year when the cereal crop was raised in 61.95 lakh acres. It was above 50 lakh acres (53.33 lakh) only one more time in the past – in 2020.
“The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare has asked the farming community to take paddy cultivation on a large scale this year. But due to various reasons, it has come down by 5.6% till the week ending September 2 in the country. However, in Telangana it has gone up by 39% during the same period and is likely to go up further”, an Agriculture Department official said.
Agriculture officials stated that only crops like sunflower, maize, groundnut and few other horticulture crops including chilli and tobacco could be taken up till the month-end with the recommended sowing/transplantation period for all other major crops including cotton is over at the July-end itself. The extent this season so far has crossed that of the last Kharif only this week as it has been lesser all along due to continuous rains.
On the other hand, the extent of cotton stopped short of the 50 lakh acre mark this season as it reached only 48.96 lakh acres. Only in 2020 (60.54 lakh acres) and 2019 (54.46 lakh acres) the fibre crop was cultivated in the extent beyond 50 lakh acres.
Similarly, the government plans to promote redgram cultivation in 15 lakh acres has also fallen flat as it is the lowest (5.55 lakh acres) since formation of the State in 2014. The previous lowest was in 2017 when it was taken up in 6.2 lakh acres and the highest was in 2020 when it was cultivated in 10.85 lakh acres followed by 10.65 lakh acres in 2016.
