Vice President Venkaiah Naidu lauds farmers for record paddy sowing

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday lauded farmers for achieving a record sowing of paddy and other crops despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Agriculture is our basic culture and is one of the mainstays of our economy. We need to protect and promote it," Naidu said in a Facebook post.

He said the total area under paddy so far this year is 378 lakh hectares, nearly 12 per cent more than the 339 lakh hectares (lha) covered in the same period last year.

The planting area of pulses went up by 6.8 per cent to 132.5 lha. Higher acreage was reported for all three major pulses – arhar, urad and moong –  as compared to same week last year, the vice president observed.

"Thanks to good rains, kharif sowing has increased by 8.6 per cent as compared to the same week last year," he said.

"Compliments to all farmers for their painstaking efforts in achieving a record planting of paddy and other crops despite COVID-19 pandemic," he added.

He highlighted some other achievements made by the Indian agriculture sector this year.

Oilseeds planting registered a 14 per cent increase over last year. Soyabean and groundnut too have reported higher acreage as compared to last year. Cotton crop has done well in terms of coverage at 127.7 lakh hectares, which is 3.4 per cent more than the same period last year, he wrote.

"We should ever be grateful to farmers, who are toiling day and night irrespective of the nature's vagaries to feed millions of people. Annadatha Sukibhava (may the one who feeds be happy)," he said.

Image credits: PTI