Enough rains for sowing,say agri officials

Officials say that transplantation of paddy is still on in several areas of central and south Gujarat and similarly,sowing of castor,pulses and cereals etc is also continuing.

Kantibhai Prajapati of the rice research department at Anand Agricultural University said that transplantation of paddy was still being done by farmers by making use of rain water. “If sufficient rains take place at the end of this month or in the first week of September,the crops will really be successful,” said Prajapati.

According to D Z Patel,joint director (statistics) in the state agriculture department,sowing has so far been done over 67.87 lakh hectares against the average annual kharif sowing over 86.99 lakh hectares.

He said while the sowing of groundnut and cotton had been completed,only half of the castor,paddy,pulses and cereals fields had been covered. With the sowing activity still on,Patel hoped the remaining area of these crops would also be covered by the end of this month with rainfall having occurred all over the state.

Giving figures,he said that out of 7 lakh hectares covered under paddy,sowing had been done so far only in 3.5 lakh hectares. Similarly,instead of 4 lakh hectares covered under castor,sowing had been done only in 2 lakh hectares.