Gujarat farmers busy in pre-sowing activity ahead of monsoon

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With monsoon likely to hit Gujarat by around June 15 this year, farmers have commenced sowing preparations.

According to experts and farmers, pre-sowing period is an important phase as farmers decide which crop they will cultivate in kharif season, based on which they will have to prepare land accordingly and decide use of natural fertilizers.

“After harvesting of summer crops, we need to do levelling of farm to clear land from old crops waste. Most farmers begin pre-sowing activities 15 to 20 days prior to the first rainfall,” said Ramesh Bhoraniya, a farmer from Mandanaka village near Padadhari taluka of Rajkot district.

As part of pre-monsoon or pre-sowing activities, farmers first clean farms of waste from old crops. This process takes around two to three days after which level the farms, which takes another three days.

“Pre-monsoon activities are very important as it helps the crops to grow. The most important process is to draw rows in a farm that is called ‘Chas’ in Gujarati. It is measurement distance between two plants in a farm,” said A. R. Pathak, vice-chancellor of Junagadh Agriculture University (JAU).

Farmers also prepare organic fertilizers and place it in rows, which help crops.

Over the last one week, some places in Saurashtra region of Gujarat have received showers because of the cyclonic storm 'Ashobaa' over east-central Arabian Sea.

JAU and three other agricultural universities of the state provide regular information about weather progress to farmers apart from giving advice related to sowing activity on weekly basis.

Most of the farmers in the state have decided to plant cotton and groundnut crops this year as the two are the major kharif crops in Gujarat.