Unfazed by El Nino, Telangana Farmers Sow More Area Than Last Year
According to data released by the Professor Jayashankar Telangana Agriculture University on Wednesday, farmers, till July 29, had sowed crops in 10 per cent more area than they did by the same date last year.
Hyderabad:Neither a poor start to the monsoon this year, or the prospects of the current spell of rain tapering off, appear to have deterred Telangana’s farmers from going big this Kharif (Vanakalam) season.
According to data released by the Professor Jayashankar Telangana Agriculture University on Wednesday, farmers, till July 29, had sowed crops in 10 per cent more area than they did by the same date last year.
University Vice Chancellor Prof. Aldas Janaiah, who released the latest report based on satellite imagery analysis, said farmers had sown crops in 32,93,335 acres till July 29, up from 2,465,691 acres as on the same date last year. The sown area accounts for 34 per cent the normal cropped area, which is 98,13,628 lakh acres.
The sowing data was collected and analysed at the Centre for Digital Agriculture and Technology, which was set up at the university last year.
While farmers in Yadadri Bhuvanagiri topped in crop planting covering 57 per cent of the normal cropped area in the district, they were followed by those in Medchal–Malkajgiri with 54 and Jangaon with 51 per cent. The districts with the lowest percentage of sown area currently are Khammam with 16.5 per cent, Wanaparthy with 17.3 per cent, and Warangal with 20.1 per cent.
As in the past, this year too, the major share of the cropped area so far was devoted to raising paddy, cotton, and maize. However, the area under pulses and oilseed crops has increased compared to last year, and this shift can be attributed to the government's crop diversification awareness campaigns to encourage farmers to adopt alternative cropping patterns, Prof. Janaiah said.
Top three crop sowing districts
District – 2025* - 2026** - Kharif Normal - % to normal sown area
Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri – 1,21,063 – 2,42,931 – 4,24,319 – 57.3
Medchal-Malkajgiri – 2,576 – 10,815 – 19,823 – 54.6
Jangaon – 88,564 – 1,85,133 – 3,59,281 – 51.5
Bottom three crop sowing districts
District – 2025* - 2026** - Kharif Normal - % to normal sown area
Khammam – 67,883 – 91,230 – 5,53,348 – 16.5
Wanaparthy – 59,960 – 4,4402 – 2,55,950 – 17.3
Warangal – 57,920 – 56,596 – 2,81,943 – 20.1
Sown area July 29, 2025; Sown area July 29, 2026.
