Minister for Agriculture S. Niranjan Reddy holding a meeting with officials on kharif operations in Hyderabad on Saturday.
| Photo Credit: Arrangement
Minister for Agriculture S. Niranjan Reddy has instructed the authorities to create awareness among the farming community on the need to advance paddy cultivation in the rabi (Yasangi) season to prevent heavy crop damage/loss due to untimely rains by raising short duration paddy varieties in the kharif (Vanakalam) season.
At a meeting held here on Saturday, he asked Agriculture Department officials to visit the field and give suggestions and instructions to farmers since the onset of monsoon rains was delayed. Citing the forecast given by the Met Department, he stated that there would be normal rainfall from July second week to August last week and also good rains for the next three days.
He told the officials to educate and encourage farmers to sow cotton only after 5 cm to 6 cm rainfall in light soils and 6 cm to 7.5 cm rain in heavy soils as proper soil moisture was necessary for germination of the seed and initial growth of the plant. The Minister said fertilizer and seed required for sowing operations were ready.
Further, the Minister suggested that the authorities give the Vanakalam crop calendar to farmers. He told them to encourage farmers to raise nurseries of short duration paddy varieties such as Kunaram Sannalu, Kunaram 1638, Bathukamma, Warangal 962, RNR 21278, RNR 29325, Jagitial 1798, Telangana Sona, MTU 1010, Jagitial 24423, IR 64, and HMT Sona for this season.
Secretary (Agriculture) M. Raghunandan Rao, Special Commission Hanmanth K. Zendge, Director of Hyderabad Met Centre K. Nagarathna, Director of Seed Development Corporation K. Keshavulu, and Additional Director (Agriculture) Vijay Kumar attended the meeting.