Red gram yields may dip this year: Agriculture scientists

Tandur: The farmers of Red gram were happy lot due to the bumper yields last year. But with weather playing spoil sport this year, the farmers seem to be worried a lot. Agriculture scientists estimate that adverse weather conditions this year may have severe impact on crop yields. The crop grown in black soils generally gets a yield of six to eight quintals per acre while those grown in red sandy soils gets a yield of four to five quintals per acre. 

The crop is cultivated in 1 lakh acres in the district, of which Tandur alone constitutes half of the crop. The farmers of Tandur, Peddemul, Basheerabad and Yalalamandals have preferred cultivating red gram this year as well, as they usually do every year. Many farmers of Vikarabad, Kodangal and Parigi also evinced interest in cultivating the crop this year. 

Most of the farmers sowed the crop in the first week of June with the timely onset of monsoons. Since then the weather was conducive to germination of the plants and crops were healthy in July. However with dry spell during months of July and August, the plants have not received enough moisture content for growth. 

Plants began to dry gradually throughout August. In the first week of September, the district recorded heavy rains and farmers were relieved. But for good yields, plants need sufficient moisture during the flowering stage. However scientists say that a good spell of rain in last week of September will help in good flowering, which generally occurs in the month of November, or else it may have an adverse impact on the overall production of the crop. 

Generally, red gram crops cultivated in black soils grow up to a height of 6 feet and those cultivated in red sandy soils grow up to 4 feet.  But with less rains, the black-soil crops in the district grew only three to four feet and those in red sandy soils grew up to three feet. Based on the height of the crops, it is estimated that crop yields may come down drastically this year. 

Last year the red crop received good yields as the months of June, August and September had plenty of rains. Crops grown in black soils yielded 6-7 quintals while those in red sandy soils yielded up to 3.5 quintals. Most of the farmers sold their produce at buying centers organised at Tandur, Vikarabad, Parigi, Marpalli, Tharur, Kulkacharla, Basheerabad and Kotpally markets. Overall, farmers received an average price of Rs 4,100 per quintal. The maximum price was up to Rs 5,250 and minimum was Rs 3,100. Going by the current crop status, the last year’s situation may not be repeated this year.