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Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu has complimented all farmers for their painstaking efforts in achieving a record planting of paddy and other crops despite COVID-19 pandemic. In a Facebook post, Mr Naidu said, thanks to good rains, kharif sowing has increased by 8.6 per cent as compared to the same week last year. He said, agriculture is India’s basic culture and is one of the mainstays of the economy. Mr Naidu said it needs to be protected and promoted.
Hailing the farmers, Annadatha Sukibhava, the Vice President said, people should ever be grateful to farmers, who are toiling day and night irrespective of nature’s vagaries to feed millions of people.
The total area under paddy so far this year is 378 lakh hectares, nearly 12 per cent more than the 339 lakh hectares covered in the same period last year. The planting area under pulses went up by 6.8 per cent to 132.5 lakh hectares. Higher acreage was reported for all three major pulses – arhar, urad and moong – as compared to the same week last year.
Oilseeds planting registered a 14 per cent increase over last year. Soyabean and groundnut too have reported higher acreage as compared to last year. Cotton crop has done well in terms of coverage at 127.7 lakh hectares which is 3.4 per cent more than the same period last year. Coarse cereals – Jowar, Bajra, Ragi and Maize have also shown an upward trend. 123 reservoirs of the country have 90 percent of live storage.
