Visakhapatnam: Despite the plentiful rainfall brought by the monsoon this year, the sowing area target set for the kharif crop season could not be realised in the state.
The kharif crop season lasts from June to September wherein around 26 types of crops have been sown in the state.
The Agriculture Department expecteded 88 per cent (35 lakh hectares) of the targeted sowing area (40 lakh ha) to be covered. Though paddy and pulse crops have been sown extensively, planning officials from the department attributed the shortfall to groundnut sowing.
Though the rainfall this year is better than last year, the sowing area has marginally dropped to 35.18 lakh ha against 35.39 lakh ha in 2016-17. In 2014-15, it had crossed 36 lakh, but the department is failing to meet the target of 40 lakh ha.
Even though the target had been set lower, the rains, have been causing damage to the crops
The monsoon season in 2017 witnessed lower pressure over the Bay of Bengal than the last two monsoons, but the active upper air cyclonic circulation triggered heavy showers, according to the IMD (Hyderabad) Meteorologist B. Rajarao.
Expressing concern over the excess rainfall in October, a planning official from the Agriculture Department said, “About 27,000 ha of different crops were submerged this month due to the excess rainfall. We have fallen short of the kharif target as groundnut could be covered only in 2.97 lakh ha against the target of 6 lakh ha. We are trying to fill the target gap by sowing different millets.”
Paddy crops were taken up in 14.24 lakh ha out of the total 35. (According to data available with CM’s Dashboard, it was 18 lakh ha,)
