Hyderabad: Erratic rains and long dry spells have cast a shadow over the Kharif season in Telangana. While farmers and agriculture officials are worried, they have not given up hopes of good rains in the coming days.
Farmers who had sowed crops had found some relief due to light showers during the Godavari Pushkaralu, but after that the monsoon seems to have vanished, leaving rain-fed crops under moisture stress.
According to the Telangana Agriculture department, 66 per cent of the crop area has been sown so far. As against the total season normal of 41,43,302 hectare in nine districts of the state barring Hyderabad, so far, the area sown as on date is 27,41,261 hectare.
The sowings ranged from 50 per cent in Khammam, 59 per cent in Mahbubnagar, 62 per cent in Ranga Reddy to 78 per cent in Nizamabad and 85 per cent in Adilabad. Agriculture minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy is monitoring the situation and is hoping for rains in the days to come.
“The situation is not so good. There has been a long dry spell, which is affecting crops, especially paddy. The irrigated area has 90 per cent paddy crop. Paddy sowings will continue till August 15. As long as there is inflow of waters, there is no problem,” Ms Jhansi Lakshmi, deputy director of agriculture, Natural Calamities Evaluation Cell, told this newspaper.
Agriculture officer Vijay Kumar, who is monitoring the situation, said contingency plans would be put in place if the dry spell continued.
“The paddy crop is at the transplantation stage to tillering stage in assured irrigation sources. Cotton, jowar, red gram, groundnut, turmeric, sugarcane and other crops are at the vegetative stage. Green gram, black gram, soybean is at a vegetative to flowering stage. Maize is at a knee high stage. Due to less and uneven distribution of rainfall in the state, rain-fed crops are facing moisture stress symptoms in some places,” an agriculture official said.
From June 1 till date, the six districts of Nizamabad, Medak, Karimnagar, Ranga Reddy, Hyderabad and Mahbubnagar recorded deficit rainfall. Adilabad and Nalgonda had normal rainfall while Warangal and Khammam had excess rainfall. This has affected sowings.
Adilabad is the only district, which recorded 76 to 100 per cent rainfall, and has normal crops coverage. The coverage at Ranga Reddy, Nizamabad, Medak, Mahbubnagar, Nalgonda, Warangal and Karimnagar area ranges from 51 to 75 per cent while Khammam has the least crop coverage with 26 to 50 per cent.
