Thanks to bountiful rains and brimming irrigation sources as a result, the area covering paddy cultivation has increased manifold during this rabi season in Karimnagar district. There is abundant water in all the 1,376 minor irrigation tanks.
Incidentally, the area of cultivation of crops during the rabi season has also increased due to the easy availability of water from all the sources.
Against the normal area of cultivation for various crops in 56,365 hectares during the rabi season, it has crossed 74,172 hectares this year.
Paddy cultivation area has increased from the normal 39,864 hectares to 62,630 hectares.
Meanwhile, the area for cultivation of maize has come down, from 12,741 to 9,011 hectares, green gram from 250 to 132 hectares, Bengal gram 329 to 189 hectares, and groundnut from 2,065 to 1,984 hectares.
Agricultural officials welcome the news and see a glut of arrivals of paddy to various market yards and IKP centres after the harvest.
The markets would be literally filled with paddy produce and nothing else. Already, rice millers are struggling to remove stocks purchased during the kharif season to make room for fresh arrivals in the rabi season.
However, farmers, who had sold their paddy during the kharif season, are yet to receive their payments. It is over two months that the IKP centres had purchased their stocks, but ryots are yet to be paid.
Rythu Ikya Vedika district president M. Venkat Reddy said that he has sold his paddy at Veenavanka mandal, two months ago. But, the authorities were yet to make the payments, he complained, and added that he had taken loans for rabi cultivation.
Stating that paddy would arrive in bulk due to the expected bumper harvest, he urged the authorities concerned to chalk out an action plan for its proper procurement and safety from damages due to possible hailstorms.
