It is sowing time in district

Cultivation of rice badly affected, to be cropped in 4,000 hectares

 
This time the monsoon has set in quite early in the district compared to the last year. Farmers will cultivate various crops in 95,454 hectares where sowing will be carried on. Farmers have already begun preparing the land for the purpose.

Ragi will be grown in as much as 63,000 hectares followed by groundnut which will be cultivated in13,000 hectares, while Tur and Rice will be sown in 4,250 hectares and 4,000 hectares respectively. Apart from these mixed crops like flatbeans (Avare), black sesame (Huchchuellu), sesame (Yellu), mustard and others will be also be cultivated in the district.

Though the sowing of tur and groundnut crops in the taluks of Mulbagal and Malur respectively have been delayed there is no cause of worry as there has been a record rain in the month of April when compared to same last year.In April, 2008 the district had recorded 13.6 mm of rains, however, this time the amount of rainfall is 211.5 mm.

Taluk-wise break up

A taluk-wise break up shows that Malur, Kolar and Mulbagal received copious rains with 55, 50 and 48 mm respectively. While Bangarpet taluk received 44.8 mm, Srinivaspur received the lowest rainfall of 13.1 mm.

Groundnut which is the district's prominent oilseed crop has suffered immensely from past four years due to drought and crop diseases and the yield was much lower than expected. However, this time groundnut is being sown on 13,000 hectares with early rains farmers are hopeful of good yield.

Ragi a major of the crop of the district is sown a month after the groundnut is sown, ie, in the last week of the June. Even the yield of this crop wasn’t satisfactory from past four years owing the drought and other reasons. Farmers had suffered immensely due to this as it is their main staple.

Off all the crops cultivation of Rice is majorly affected as it is sown only in 4,000 hectares. Though the district is known for tanks which number in thousands the poor rainfall over the years has dried most of them living little scope for rice cultivation which is water intensive.