Agriculture scientists have advised the farmers, particularly those who wish to take fine paddy cultivation in the current Kharif season, to keep in mind certain factors like price and varieties of the fine paddy before going for sowing.
At the same time, as the scientists of the GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology (GBPUAT), Pantnagar have predicted the market price of fine paddy such as Pusa 1121, Panjab-1, Sarbati in the local Rudrapur market to be in the range of Rs2100-Rs2200 per quintal in the forthcoming Kharif season that is October, November and December 2014.
Therefore, the scientists of Department of Agriculture Economics, the GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology (GBPUAT), Pantnagar, led by Dr Anil Kumar, have advised the farmers who wish to take fine paddy cultivation in the current Kharif season to decide the varieties of fine paddy crop considering its forecasted price and other factors.
The team of experts reached to this conclusion after conducting a survey of the Rudrapur regulated market, a major market for fine paddy in Uttarakhand, and analysed market price data which prevailed for the last 13 years in this market, said Dr Anil Kumar.
The main objective of this research is to make price forecasts well in advance of sowing of selected agricultural commodities like paddy and during harvesting so that the farmers could take right steps before cultivation or harvesting of the crops, added Kumar.
The major paddy producing countries in the world are China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Burma and Bangladesh, informed the scientists of the GBPUAT.
India has the largest area under paddy in the world and ranks second in production after China. India ranks among the first top five exporters of rice and exports about 8 lakh tonne, mostly to Saudi Arabia and other Middle East countries, Europe, and USA. India produces about 20 per cent of global rice production. The area under paddy in India was 43.97 million hectares and production around 104.32 million tonnes during 2011-12. West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Orissa, Assam, Karnataka and Haryana are the major paddy-producing states in India.
As far as Uttarakhand is concerned, area under paddy was 2.80 lakh hectare and production was 5.93 lakh tonnes during 2010-12. The major paddy-producing districts in Uttarakhand are Udham Singh Nagar, Dehradun and Haridwar.