Chhattisgarh receives more than 75% rains

The rice bowl of the country has received 75 per cent more rains as against the average rainfall in the current monsoon season.

According to revenue department record, the state has recorded 1026.6 millimeters (mm) of rainfall as on August 29. The rainfall received is about 77 per cent of the state's average rainfall. The state receives on average 1325 mm of rainfall every year.

The agriculture department officials said that the rainfall in the state was satisfactory and had been uniform that would help the crop specially paddy. The state would receive another spell of rainfall later and if it was on time, Chhattisgarh would expect another bumper paddy production in the kharif marketing season 2013-14.

The buoyant monsoon had resulted in a huge paddy production in the last kharif season. As against the targeted paddy production of 9 million tonnes (MT), the state produced 11.7 MT of paddy-about 25 per cent higher than the target set for the kharif marketing session 2012-13.

The state also registered record paddy procurement at the minimum support price (MSP). As against the target of 6.5 MT, about 7.1 MT paddy arrived in the societies set up by the government to procure paddy directly from the farmers. The state had set a target of producing 7.5 MT this year.

The officials said that good rainfall would help getting better productivity from the field.

The state had been expecting a paddy yield of 2500 kilogram from a hectare of land. In the last kharif season, the paddy productivity in Chhattisgarh was recorded at 2050 kilogram per hectare.