The Hindu Business Line : Rainfall in AP deficient by nearly 51 pc

Consequently, the cropped area in the State has declined to 48.21 lakh hectares (lha), 39 per cent less than the normal area of 79.52 lha sown during the kharif season. However, the area sown this season is higher than the 47.5 lha covered during kharif 2003.

Widespread pre-monsoon showers received by the State during the months of April and May helped timely cultivation of various crops in almost all the districts. But there was a lull in the sowing of major crops such as groundnut, cotton and maize during June due to prolonged dry spells. Crops such as cotton, soyabean and maize suffered due to moisture stress.

According to officials of the State Agriculture Department, there has been significant progress in the sowing of cotton, groundnut and sunflower at present following widespread rains in the last fortnight. Transplantation of paddy is also at its peak in the Godavari delta and North Coastal districts with release of water into canals. But still sizeable areas under major commands and tanks could not be covered due to the lack of water.

The Krishna delta, once called the rice bowl of India, continues to suffer due to water scarcity in the Nagarjunasagar reservoir. Even today there are no inflows into the reservoir while the Srisailam dam upstream currently receives a meagre 1,740 cusecs. As against its storage capacity of 408.23 thousand million cubic feet (TMC ft), the water storage in Nagarjunasagar at present is 176.27 TMC ft.

Compared to the normal cropped area, there has been a 59 per cent decline in the area of foodgrain crops, 33 per cent in pulses, 13 per cent in oilseeds, 30 per cent in coarse grains and 21 per cent in area of various dry crops during the current kharif season.

The area under oilseeds, rice and dry crops has gone up this season compared to last year but the area covered by all other crops has declined. The area under groundnut crop increased to 13.08 lha this season as against 7.25 hectares last year. The area under cotton and rice also increased to 9.05 lha (7.28 lha) and 5.01 lha (4.88 lha).

On the other hand, the area under castor declined to 1.81 lha this season from 3.02 lha previously. The area under chillies also decreased to 48,000 hectares from 78,000 hectares.

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