Crops were raised in about 1.38 crore acres in the ongoing Kharif season so far in the State, including horticultural crops in 12 lakh acres, and the government expected Rabi cultivation to be in around 75 lakh acres to 80 lakh acres, Minister for Agriculture S. Niranjan Reddy said in Hyderabad on Wednesday.
Reviewing the status of Kharif cultivation and arrangements for Rabi cultivation with senior officials of the Agriculture and Horticulture departments, he said paddy cultivation was taken up in a record 65 lakh acres this Kharif season. Paddy was raised in higher extent in Nagarkurnool, Siddipet, Sangareddy, Nirmal, Nizamabad, Kamareddy, Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri, Narayanpet, Wanaparthy, Mahabubnagar and Rangareddy districts.
Paddy cultivation had gone up in 24,000 acres in Nagarkurnool district alone, the Minister said adding that horticultural crops were also raised in 12 lakh acres including oilplam in 1.93 lakh acres so far.
Asking the authorities to start preparations for Rabi season, Mr. Niranjan Reddy said crops were raised in 74 lakh acres during the last Rabi and it was expected to be in 75 lakh acres to 80 lakh acres this Rabi season. He stated that the requirement of all fertilizers was assessed at 18.64 lakh tonnes for Rabi crops including 9.8 lakh tonnes of urea.
However, the Centre had allocated 9.2 lakh tonnes of urea to the State. A letter was addressed to the Centre requesting it to allocate the required 9.8 lakh tonnes urea keeping in view the expected increase in the extent.
On the crop loan waiver scheme announced in 2018, the Minister said 11,812.14 crore pertaining to 21,34,949 farmers was written off so far. Farmers to whom the loan waiver could not be implemented so far for reasons such as closure of bank accounts, change of bank names (merger), shifting of branches and other technical reasons. He asked the farmers whose crop loans were not written off to contact on 040-23243667 for clarifications.
The minister also asked the authorities to pursue settlement of all pending claims of Rythu Bima at the earliest. Secretary (Agriculture) M. Raghunandan Rao, Special Commission Hanmanth K. Zendge, Additional Director Vijay Kumar and others attended.
Source: The Hindu