Anantapur: Anantapur, popularly known as the ‘fruit hub’ of Andhra Pradesh, is all set to increase horticulture and floriculture output following heavy rains after decades.
Despite, severe drought and rain deficit conditions, the rich quality of soil in Anantapur district helped in producing different varieties of fruits which has a huge demand in National and International markets.
Tadipathri is the centre for production of orange while Anantapur suburbs are known for Papaya and Madakasira. Kalyanadurgam is the producer of pomegranate which grows based on different climatic and soil conditions.
The recent rains brought cheer among farmers to divert more water towards dry land horticulture instead of depending on groundnut which has been incurring heavy losses consecutively.
Ground water sources improved more than 5 metres following the storage of water in the tanks and over flowing of river canals. More than 340 irrigation tanks were overflowing in addition to the constant flowing of Pennar and Chitravati rivers.
The Krishna water diversion towards Rayalaseema through Handri Neeva project has been recharging borewells. Horticulture holds promise for the future and is poised for expansion every year.
“We’ve seen Pennar river flow three decades back while Chitravathi river flowed a decade ago. This season both the rivers are flowing upto the brim, thereby improving ground water sources,” K. Manjunath, a farmer from Puttaparthi observed.
The horticulture department planned to increase 20 per cent more dry lands towards horticulture production.
An estimated 1.90 lakh acres are under horticulture cultivation in the district and 59,000 acres are under vegetable and floriculture cultivation.
Anantapur is the only district that produces a variety of fruits that is not available in other districts.
