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.

Harvesters in great demand in W.G.

The HIndu 5/5/11

ELURU: The harvesters are in great demand in the paddy-rich West Godavari district as rabi operations peaked, thanks to the acute shortage of manpower. The machines on hire in different sizes are rolling into paddy fields from far-off places such as Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Telangana region. Combined harvesters which are used for harvesting, threshing, winnowing, and even packing at times have become most sought after.
The labour problem has been worrying farmers for quite some time. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) has reportedly worsened the situation with the district witnessing a reverse migration with settlers finding employment in their native villages in north coastal Andhra under the scheme. The demand-supply mismatch on the labour front has resulted in an increase of wage component in agriculture manifold.
According to Yerneni Nagendranath of the Andhra Pradesh Rytanga Samakhya, the district administration is not able to cope with the demand for harvesters. The administration had arranged bank finance to the ryot clubs for purchase of 45 harvesters under the Centrally-sponsored Rastriya Krushi Vikas Yojana (RKY) scheme in the previous financial year at the rate of one per mandal. The demand was so great that each village should have at least one harvester for smooth agricultural operations, he said.
200 harvesters
Medikonda Ramesh of Unguturu said not less than 200 harvesters were seen undertaking agricultural operations in Unguturu mandal alone in the current season. He harvested the crop in seven out of his 15 acres manually by paying Rs. 5,700 per acre in phase I. But the machines engaged in the rest of the fields in the next phase brought down the cost to Rs. 2,000, says Mr. Ramesh.
Complaints
He highlighted the need to ensure that the harvesters imported from China and Japan suited local conditions. The complaint is that the harvesters get bogged down in the water-logged and marshy delta fields and the grains harvested by machines are prone to having higher moisture levels. He called for change in the designs of the harvesters to address these problems. If the machine can undertake harvesting operations in one acre within an hour, at least 4-6 workers were required to take up the same amount of work, he said.