Bengal gram and sunflower among the first to be planted

Although deficient rainfall continued to haunt Kalaburagi district, farmers who suffered heavy losses during the kharif season have began brisk sowing of rabi crops, particularly Bengal gram and sunflower, throughout the district.
Officials in the Agriculture Department told The Hindu here on Wednesday that the shortfall of rains during September was 30 per cent, but that in the first week of October was only 10 per cent. The rains at the beginning of this month had helped loosening the soil, thereby enabling farmers to begin preparations towards sowing the crops.
17 per cent covered
As per official figures, sowing has been completed in 17 per cent of the total rabi area of just over 5.08 lakh hectares. The highest sowing of 35 per cent has been reported from Sedam and Aland taluks, and the lowest sowing of just one per cent has been reported in Jewargi taluk. While Afsalpur recorded 26 per cent sowing, Kalaburgi taluk reported 13 per cent sowing, and Chincholi and Chitapur reported six and two per cent sowing respectively.
The original target fixed for the rabi season this year was 4.83 lakh hectares; this was revised by the government to 5.08 lakh hectares taking into consideration the transfer of unsown area of kharif season. Out of the total area of 87,742 hectares sown so far under the rabi season, 64,295 hectares is covered by Bengal gram and 22,465 hectares is covered by sunflower.
The target fixed by the government for Bengal gram coverage this year is 2.06 lakh hectares and for sunflower it is 27,367 hectares. The area under sunflower is likely to cross the fixed target this year.
One of the most disturbing factors was the low percentage of sowing of jowar, which is the staple rabi crop of the district.
As against the target of 2.49 lakh hectares, the sowing of jowar has been completed only in 472 hectares.
“There is still enough time to complete sowing jowar and other crops, and we have not lost of hope of farmers achieving the targets fixed for the rabi season,” an official said.
Rainfall in the month of September had revived the hopes of farmers of reaping at least something from the standing red gram crop in Chincholi, Chitapur and Sedam.
However, the growth of red gram crop in other taluks including Aland, Afsalpur, Jewargi and Kalaburagi is stunted.

Source : The Hindu