Karnataka may witness bumper tur crop this year

Karnataka, which accounts for 20 per cent of the national area under tur (red gram) cultivation, is set for a bumper crop this year, thanks to the timely and sufficient rain in major growing areas of north Karnataka. The area under tur cultivation increased 2.3 times to 833,000 hectares this year compared to 350,000 hectares cultivated last year, thus raising hopes of a bumper crop.

According to state agriculture department, the reason for area expansion was due to widespread rainfall during the months of June and July in major growing areas like Gulbarga, Bidar, Bijapur and Bagalkot districts. Encouraged by this, farmers have made a large-scale shift from oilseeds to tur and other short-term crops like greengram and urad.

The state, which had seen one of the worst years in terms of production last year (2009-10) due to delay in monsoons as well as excess rain in September last year, has so far witnessed a massive rise in tur cultivation. Going by the current indications, the state can expect a bumper crop this year, officials in the state agriculture department said.

With an average production of five quintals per hectare, the state can expect a production of around 4.1 million quintals of tur this year, which is 2.5 times more than last year’s production of 1.6 million quintals.

However, the actual production depends on many factors like further rain, availability of fertilizer among others. “Its too early to make any prediction of crop this year. Already the major growing areas of Gulbarga district have seen excess rainfall this year. We fear that some of the crop may be lost in the low lying areas due to water stagnation,” said Basavaraj Ingin, president, Karnataka Pradesh Redgram Growers’ Association. With excess rainfall this year, the farmers are facing problem of weed and this may affect the production, he added.