Farmers in Kashmir valley are all set to reap a bumper rice crop this year, following timely rains and with no outbreak of disease this year. The agriculture department is expecting a yield of 500,000 metric tones of paddy crop this year, compared to 495,000 metric tones achieved last year. Out of a total 160,000 hectare of land cultivated in Kashmir valley, the department has achieved a production of 495,000 metric tones of rice previous year. Joint Director Agriculture (inputs) Mian Abdul Majid, said that department is expecting a bumper rice crop this year, due to timely rains and measures taken by the department to control the "paddy blast" which has broken out in some parts of the valley earlier. He said that farmers have suffered heavy losses for the last many years due to floods and droughts in various areas, "Better and timely irrigation facilities and high quality seeds introduced by the department, helped to keep favourable conditions for bumper crop of rice this year," the joint director said. Rice being the principal crop in Kashmir valley and the government has distributed high-yielding seeds to farmers to increase the output. The rice crop by and large is free from attack of any disease in the state so far. Bacterial leaf blight had attacked it in certain parts of Ganderbal and Kupwara district, but it was controlled later. The agriculture department sends different teams in these areas where they spray the rice fields. The agriculture experts maintained that at this point of time, there would not be much loss to rice crop, as the crop has already entered the maturing stage. Experts said that if the crop had been attacked in the early stages then the yield of rice would have been affected. Infact, harvesting has already started in certain parts of valley and it will pick up pace in days to come. Farmers, who have suffered heavy losses due to floods and droughts earlier said that they are eagerly waiting for harvesting the bumper crops. A farmer, Abdul Rashid said, "floods had destroyed all their rice crops last years. But this year due to God's grace, the timely rains helped better production. The favourable climatic condition helped in checking spread of any disease. This is most encouraging for better production," he said. The farmers in north and some parts of central Kashmir suffered losses due to drought last year. But this year, the farmers are happy and are expecting a bumper crop. "Drought was the major concern for us, but abundant snow fall in the previous winter helped to keep enough moisture on the agriculture fields, which helped better cultivation this year," said another farmer. The farmers suggested that agriculture scientists should concentrate more on field work, rather than confining their research work in universities. "The agriculture officials are not reaching to the grass root level, to understand the problems of the farmers. Once they reach the grass roots, better production can be achieved," the farmers suggested.