The Kharif paddy harvest has begun in Krishna and NTR districts and the Agriculture Department is hoping that the process will be sped up in the next week. For that, harvesting machines have been brought to Krishna from Nellore and Tamil Nadu. The machines have been taken to different parts of Krishna and NTR districts to help the farmers.
Besides, the State government is all set to procure paddy grains from the farmers through Dr YSR Rythu Bharosa Kendras (RBKs). The planting for Kharif season ended in October and those planted early are ready for harvest. These two districts play a major role in producing paddy in the Krishna Delta. The paddy was cultivated by farmers on a total of 2.50 lakh hectares in both the districts.
Paddy harvest has begun in Gannavaram, Unguturu, Kankipadu, Thotlavalluru, Pamidimukkala, Vuyyuru, Pamarru, and other areas in Krishna district. The harvest is progressing in Nunna, Pathapadu, Kundavari Kandrika and other areas in NTR district as well. Many commission agents are in touch with farmers to provide harvesting machines to them. As of now, the harvesting machine agents are collecting Rs.3,000 per hour.
The Agriculture Department is expecting to procure around 12 lakh Metric Tons (MT) of paddy grains from the farmers of both the districts. For that, the department is all set to open over 486 RBKs across the combined Krishna district — 317 RBKs in Krishna and 169 RBKs in NTR district.
The State government has directed the Agriculture, Civil Supplies, and Marketing Departments, besides rice millers, to keep sufficient gunny bags before starting the paddy grains procurement. In addition, the Transport Department must arrange adequate trucks to transport the paddy bags after the procurement from the RBKs to rice mills.
According to the Agriculture Department, 1.76 lakh hectares were cultivated in the Kharif season — 15,000 hectares less than the 2022 Kharif season. However, the officials expect around 10.50 lakh MT paddy yield in Krishna. NTR district cultivated 78,104 hectares and it was 11,000 hectares less than the 2022 Kharif season. Also, the department is expecting 1.38 lakh MTs of paddy yield from that district.
The officials said that the Grade-A variety of paddy would be procured as per the Minimum Support Price (MSP) at Rs.2,203 per quintal and Rs.1,652 will be paid per a bag of 75 kg. Also, the common variety paddy will be purchased at Rs.2,183 per quintal and Rs.1,637 will be paid per bag. However, these prices will be paid only if the paddy has 17 per cent moisture content. In other cases, MSP will be slashed as per the moisture content.
35 to 40 bags of
paddy per acre
Farmers are producing around 35 bags to 40 bags of paddy (each bag contains 75 kg) yield per acre in both Krishna and NTR districts. Grade-A variety of paddy i.e. BPT 5204 and others are produced in 35 bags per acre. Also, the common grade, i.e.1061 and others were produced in 40 bags, said Kolli Koti Reddy, a farmer of Nunna.
Further, he said that this year, he spent Rs.30,000 per acre beginning from the farmland ploughing to harvesting. After harvesting the paddy, it would take seven days to dry up and maintain 17 per cent moisture for the paddy grains. However, Koti Reddy requested that the payment process should be completed within a week.