Two lakh farmers in 24 mandals of the district have started the sowing of paddy in the current kharif farming season.
Officials and farmers said that the intermittent rains for the past few days, under the influence of active Southwest Monsoon 2024, favoured them to start the process. Yelamanchili recorded the highest rainfall of 75 mm in the State on Wednesday, while the district’s maximum rainfall of 25 mm was recorded at Nakkapalli on Thursday.
“Since the current rainy conditions are favourable, I have started the sowing for my five acre field. I bought subsidised seeds from a government supplier at ₹31 per kg (excluding ₹10 subsidy). We need this kind of intermittent rains for sowing, but for the next process (transplantation) in July, we need continuous and bountiful rains,” said K. Suryanarayana Raju, a farmer from Payakaraopeta.
The government provides subsidy on seeds for a maximum of five acres of field. A farmer uses 30 kg of seed per acre. Only 80 percent of the seed germinates at the nursery stage. This nursery is taken up in one to two acres of land. Later, these plants are planted (called transplantation) in the main fields after ploughing the soil.
Anakapalli District Agriculture Officer B. Mohana Rao said that about 2 lakh farmers in 24 mandals of the district are ready to cultivate paddy in about 58,000 hectares. Mandals like Payakaraopeta, Yelamanchili, Narsipatnam, Chodavaram and Kasimkota are the areas where paddy cultivation is high. He said that farmers use about 10-12 types of seeds for paddy crop, however, 70 percent of the seeds are of RGL variety.
“Currently, the rains are good. If the same type of rainfall continues during later stages like transplanting (probably from mid-July) and stemming (from August to September), the production will be high. However, there should be dry weather for harvesting (November-December). We need at least 150-200 mm of rainfall from July to September for the crop to grow fully,” Mr. Mohana Rao told The Hindu on Thursday.
Meanwhile, scientists at Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University said that they released some varieties (MTU 1271, BPT 2841, BPT 2846 and NLR 3238) of paddy seeds that are adaptive to soil conditions and resistant to pests in all parts of the State.
