Karimnagar is the new rice bowl of State

Karimnagar is the new rice bowl of State
KARIMNAGAR: Karimnagar district is all set emerge as the ‘rice bowl' of Andhra Pradesh with an expected record paddy production of over 12.60 lakh metric tones during this rabi season.
Thanks to the bountiful rainfall from 2006, paddy production has been increasing considerably. During the 2006-07 rabi season, paddy was cultivated in 1.43 lakh hectares and the production was 9.01 lakh metric tones.
In 2007-08 rabi season, the production was 9.5 lakh tonnes in 1.7 lakh hectares.
In 2008-09, 1.95 lakh hectares were brought under cultivation and the yield was around 12.5 lakh tonnes. However, there was a fall in the yield during the 2010 rabi season due to drought.
The Agricultural Department are expecting a bumper harvest of over 12.60 lakh MT paddy during the current 2010-11 rabi season as the paddy was cultivated in 2.12 lakh hectares against the normal area of 1.38 lakh hectares during the rabi season. Thanks to the bountiful rainfall and increase in the ground water table, the area of paddy cultivation had increased considerably in the district making it the rice bowl of State.
About 50 per cent of area of paddy was cultivated in Sri Ram Sagar project command area and the remaining under 3.5 lakh agricultural pumpset connections in the district. The agricultural authorities attributed increase in paddy production due to good drainage system in the district fields compared to the East and West Godavari districts, where the water is logged for a longer time.
In Karimnagar, the paddy fields have good drainage system where water is aerated easily, thus yielding record harvest of around 35 to 40 bags of rice per acre, the authorities said.

With the onset of harvest season, the paddy harvesters are busy doing roaring business in the district. The harvesters are charging anywhere from Rs. 1500 to Rs. 2,000 per hour. Sensing possible threat due to unseasonal rains and hailstorms, the farmers are forced to shell out huge amount for harvesting their paddy produce.

Farm Innovation- Gladiolus as Intercrop with Sugarcane

Sh Dheer Singh, in his late fifties, has been farming for more than past 30 years. He is a graduate with land-holding of 2.5 hectares in village Noonikhera (District Muzaffarnagar, UP). He received 1st prize for sugar cultivation by the local KVK. His idea of taking gladiolus crop along with sugarcane proved highly remunerative and got him appreciation from fellow farmers.

Muzaffarnagar is the main sugarcane growing area and a very good one at that, in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Cost of cultivation of sugarcane has been increasing day by day and net profit has been decreasing consistently. In order to address this problem, the farmer Shri Dheer Singn decided to grow intercrop of ‘sarson’ as advised by the extension specialist of the area. But Dheer wanted to grow something new that would give him not only income but income on a regular basis. He was near the high way to Delhi and used to seed many kinds of vegetables and flowers being transported to Delhi. He enquired from one of the truck owners about what can sell best in Delhi. The answer he received was “Gladiolus”. He immediately acquired the information on the variety and cultivation practices of Gladiolus. He decided to plant gladiolus bulbs in the fresh autumn plantation of sugarcane that he was planning.

While doing so, he also introduced gladiolus as intercrop on ridges as additional crop without disturbing the population of sugarcane already growing in furrows.

In both cases, ha found his new intercopping as highly profitable. Gladiolus is planted in the month of October on ridges as additional crop and the spikes (flower bearing twigs) are harvested from Christmas (X-mas), 25 December) upto February end. The bulbs are left in the field for one month for hardening and removed in the end of March. This intercropping gave a net profit of Rs. 3.08 lakhs per ha as compared to Rs. 0.93 lakh of sole crop. The average yield of intercropped sugarcane was 1000 q/h and with intercrop, Dheer Singh was able to get an additional Rs 1,50,000 for gladiolus spikes from the population in this one ha, In addition he was left with 75,000 bulbs and 5qunitals of bulblets of gladiolus from 1.0 ha land. The value of this was about Rs 60,000/- only.


Practical utility of innovation

Gladiolus as additional intercrop may be planted in the month of October with autumn sugarcane or even in standing sugarcane on bunds. It is a feasible option in the district because of marginal and small land holding. Gladiolus on ridges intercropped with sugarcane var. COS-8436


Sh Dheer Singh harvesting spikes of Gladiolus


Name - Shri Dheer Singh
Contact- 9759847691