Hyderabad: Cotton, maize, soya bean, paddy and red gram crops are among the top five crops that were worst affected in Telangana on account of drought during Kharif this year.
Farmers had sown 18 types of crops in Kharif season (June-September). Of them, cotton, maize and soya bean alone suffered losses to an extent of 26 lakh acre.
The latest drought report prepared by the agriculture department revealed that nearly 21 lakh farmers in Telangana were affected by drought this year and they need immediate financial assistance.
Agriculture minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy said the huge extent of crop loss was on account of good spells of rain in June and then again in September in some districts, which prompted farmers to sow these crops over large areas.
“However, there was a longer gap, of about a month, between spells of rain, which led to crops drying. Farmers lost both their investment and crops on account of the prolonged dry spell,” Mr Reddy added.
Though central teams toured drought-hit districts in Telangana earlier this month to assess the drought situation, the Centre is yet to grant financial assistance to Telangana.
The state government had sought Rs 2,514 crore drought relief from Centre, of which it requested for Rs 1,000 crore as immediate assistance. The latest report stated that the normal crop sown area during Kharif is 1.08 crore acre, but only 88.82 lakh acre, amounting to 86 per cent was sown. Of this, crops over 30.58 lakh acre were damaged due to drought.
The report has been submitted to the Centre and the state government hopes to get sufficient financial assistance based on the latest findings.
