Hyderabad: The state’s agriculture production could take a massive blow unless the monsoon revives in the near future. The continuous dry spell for the past few weeks in all districts has hit farming operations in the ongoing kharif season badly.
The normal crop sown area in Kharif is 1.08 crore acres. Due to the dry spell, crops were sown only in 24.9 lakh acres till date against the normal of 36.66 lakh acres at this time last year.
Last year, crops were sown in 35.10 lakh acres by this time. Mancherial and Gadwal districts are the worst affected with just 1 per cent of the total crop area sown so far.
A report released by the agriculture department on Thursday said: “There is a deficit of over 11 lakh acres in crop sown area so far this year against the corresponding period last year. With continuous dry spell, farmers are avoding sowing of crops. Even the crops that were sown in the first half of June after few spells of rain are facing the threat of drying up.”
The normal crop sown area of cotton is 42 lakh acres. By this time, it should have been sown in 21.12 lakh acres but only 14.47 lakh acres is under cotton now.
The crop sown area of foodgrains also witnessed a significant drop over last year. Against the normal area under foodgrains of 49.06 lakh acres, only 7.67 lakh acres have been sown so far. A total of 11.08 lakh acres should have been cultivated by now.
Paddy cultivation too has taken a massive beating due to dry spell. The normal crop sown area of paddy is 23.75 lakh acres. However, paddy was sown in a mere 1.3 lakh acres.
Last year, the crop sown area was good with bountiful rain from May-end to mid-June. This year, there were only few spells of rain in the first and second weeks of June followed by a dry spell due to which farmers are preferring to wait till monsoon revives.
