Sowing for the current Kharif season in Kalaburagi district is going to be slow due to the delay in the onset of monsoon rain.
Farmers have taking up sowing on only 6,500 hectares (one per cent) in the last one week, against the 1,22,000 hectares (16%) covered during the corresponding period last year in Kalaburagi district, as per data made available by the Joint Director of the Agriculture Department.
The sowing target set by the Agriculture Department for the 2023-24 Kharif season is 8,87,014 hectares.
According to official data, the target area for sowing has been increased by 1,02,661 hectares compared to the last Kharif season.
Farmers in Afzalpur, Aland, Chittapur, Kalagi, Shahabad, Jewargi and Yadrami taluks have not started sowing operations yet.
Whereas farmers in Sedam, Kamalapur, Kalaburagi and Chincholi taluks have started sowing short duration crops, including green gram and black gram.
And, farmers have not yet started sowing operations for red gram (a major crop of Kalaburagi district).
The department has increased the sowing area for red gram to 5,93,000 hectares against the 5,52,622 hectares in 2022-23. The sowing target set for black gram is 24,250 hectares and for green gram, it is 51,500 hectares.
Area under cereals has been reduced to 14,392 hectares against last year’s target of 17,558 hectares, whereas area under pulses has been increased to 6,69,229 hectares compared to last year’s target of 6,37,963 hectares.
Cloud seeding
Krishik Samaj president Siddaramappa Patil Dangapur has demanded that the State government take up cloud seeding across the region. He appealed to red gram growers, who suffered huge losses after their crop was affected by wilt disease, not to panic as the Agriculture Department is providing an improved quality of GRG-811 seed variety that can help tackle the challenges of climate change, while also being disease resistance.
