KURNOOL: Drought-like conditions prevailed in the district as it received scanty rainfall in August and September, leading to major crop losses. The district collector has been asked by the state administration to submit a detailed report on the extent of the damage.
Joint director (agriculture) Varalakshmi has submitted a report to the district collector Koteswara Rao.
Agriculture officers in the district sourced the ground-level data on the crop pattern and the extent of sowing. As per the report, 6.01 lakh hectares of agricultural land has cotton, groundnut, Bengal gram, maize and other crops.
These officials concluded that 39 out of the 54 mandals in the district have been affected by low rainfall, leading to crop failures. Most of the affected mandals were in the Adoni and Kurnool divisions that include Pathikonda, Kodumur, Yemmiganur, Mantralayam and Alur constituencies.
Telugu Desam senior leader Kotla Suryaprakash took a delegation to a farmland in Kodumur constituency and examined the crop failure there on Friday. However, the report concluded that crops in the Nandyal division consisting of Allagadda, Atmakur, Dhone, Banaganapalle, Panyam constituencies were not affected by lack of rainfall.
Meanwhile, Kadapa district received heavy rainfall over the last two days. Heavy rain lashed the Rayachoti area on Friday night and Saturday. Veeraballi received 116mm of rainfall on Friday morning, while Lakkireddy Palle in Kadapa division received 111.2mm and Rayachoti 110.6mm on Saturday. The rain started at midnight on Friday and continued till 10am on Saturday.
Rainwater has reached many houses, especially in the low-level areas of Rayachoti town. Some charities in Rayachoti distributed food parcels to the victims on Saturday morning. As for the details of the rainfall in the district from Friday night to Saturday morning, weatherman said it was 111.2 mm in Lakkireddipalli in Kadapa division and 110.6mm in Rayachoti.
Simhadripuram in Jammalamadugu revenue division received 102.4mm of rainfall.
