70 per cent excess sowing of Kharif crops this year

Sowing of foodgrains, cashcrops and oilseeds is underway in full swing across the State and by June-end 27.62 lakh hectares has been covered.

This constitutes 37 per cent of the targeted area of 74.29 lakh hectares for the kharif season. The sowing is 70 per cent in excess compared to corresponding coverage of last year’s 16.07 lakh hectares.

Crops like cotton, sugarcane, tobacco, maize and soybean have seen above normal quantity of sowing.

According to Agriculture Department data, there has been above normal sowing in Bangalore, Bidar, Chitradurga, Davangere, Mandya, Ramnagar and Gadag districts. However, sowing is going on in slow pace due to shortage of rain in the districts of Gulbarga, Bijapur and Yadgir.

“The State has so far distributed around 2.59 lakh quintals of seeds to around 7.91 lakh farmers. This apart, an additional 1.89 lakh quintals of seeds is available in various Raitha Samparka Kendras. With a total requirement of 23.40 lakh tonnes of fertilisers for the season, we have already distributed 6.61 lakh tonnes to the farmers,” Director of Agriculture K V Sarvesh said.

Meanwhile, taking a dig at the government, Opposition Leader in the Assembly H D Kumaraswamy said: “As against the requirement of 9.2 lakh tonnes of fertiliser (from April to June), farmers have availed around 6 lakh tonnes. In reality, this clearly indicates that the farmers are unable to purchase fertilisers due to its high cost.”

221 mm Rainfall

According to the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre data, the state as a whole recorded 221 mm rainfall as against the normal rainfall of 205 mm during June. However, the cumulative rain for the month was deficit by 15-25 percent in Yadgir, Dharwad, Kolar and Chikballapur districts.

For June, of the 176 taluks, the rainfall was excess in 61 taluks, normal in 82 and deficit in 33 taluks. Last year for the same period rainfall was excess in three taluks, normal in 14 taluks, deficit in 83 taluks and scanty in 76 taluks.

Storage Tanks

Of the total 3,524 minor irrigation tanks in the state, only two per cent of the tanks had storage of more than 50 per cent of their total capacity. While 26 per cent of the tanks had storage capacity of 30 per cent to 50 per cent and the remaining 72 per cent of the tanks were dry, a KSNMDC report said.