The Department of Agriculture has set a target of 43,117 hectares for sowing in the rabi season in Yadgir district.
Of the 43,117 hectares, 20,339 hectares will come under groundnut followed by 17,165 hectares under jowar and 2,764 hectares under Bengal gram.
These are the major crops for the season.
The remaining are as follows: cotton 1,000 hectares, bajra 845 hectares and paddy 435 hectares.
The minor crops are ragi, maize, wheat, horse gram, green gram, sesamum, sunflower and sugarcane as the area of these crops is small.
Due to severe scarcity of rainfall during the monsoon, two taluks (Wadagera and Shahapur) have been declared as severely drought-hit and four taluks (Hunsagi, Shorapur, Yadgir and Gurmitkal) have been declared as moderately drought-hit. And, now, during the rabi season, farmers are expecting good yields to off-set crop loss during the kharif season.
“Farmers have faced severe crop loss in the kharif season owing to scarcity in rainfall. The State government has declared drought. However, farmers are more worried about the compensation which is going to be calculated based on NDRF norms. Meanwhile, they are hoping for good yields during the rabi season to overcome their loss,” a leader of farmers Mallikarjun Satyampet said.
The Department of Agriculture is all set to distribute sowing seeds, particularly groundnut, Bengal gram and jowar, through the Raitha Sampark Kendra at the hobli level. The gross demand for sowing seeds for groundnut is 27,300 quintals, Bengal gram 1,385 quintals and jowar 215 quintals.
Meanwhile, 5,170 quintals of groundnut, 595 quintals of Bengal gram and 57 quintals of jowar have been distributed on demand.
The department has also stocked fertilizer to be distributed among farmers on demand. The stock is as follows: urea 12,549 tonnes, Diammonium Phosphate (DAP) 5,058 tonnes, Muriate of Potash (MOP) 319 tonnes, Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium (NPK) 15,915 tonnes, Single Super Phosphate (SSP) 491 tonnes and compost 18 tonnes, sources in the department said.
