Hyderabad: As many as 220 of 438 agricultural mandals in nine districts are to be declared drought-hit in Telangana state. This is the first time that drought-affected mandals are being declared after the formation of TS.
Last year, despite drought conditions, the TS government failed to submit a report to the Centre on drought-hit mandals. As the Kharif season ended on September 30, the TS government asked district collectors to send mandal-wise details of rainfall, crop sown area, crop yield among others to declare drought mandals.
The announcement of drought-hit mandals would enable rescheduling of loans and interest payment besides getting fresh loans for Rabi season that commenced on October 1. A drought committee headed by the chief secretary is to be constituted in a day or two to list drought-hit mandals and submit a report to the Centre seeking a relief package.
“The collectors are asked to take action and notify specific areas in the mandal in the district gazette, to enable farmers avail credit facilities and take up relief operations,” said minister for agriculture Pocharam Srinivas Reddy.
According to data available with the state, he said, about 220 mandals have come under the category of rain-deficit mandals. Officials analysed the dry spells between July and September, drop in cropped area, reduction in crop yields and other parameters and found that 220 mandals were eligible for classification as drought-affected.
“The data shows that during the just-concluded Kharif, the total crop sown area is 35.13 lakh hectares in TS, which is equivalent to 85 per cent of the normal area of 41.43 lakh hectares. While 26.03 lakh hectares sown are under rain-fed conditions, the remaining 9.10 lakh hectares are un-der irrigated conditions,” Mr Reddy said.
