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HYDERABAD, Oct. 4

Faced with one of the worst drought situations in recent years, the State Agriculture Department has prepared a contingency plan to minimise the adverse impact. With the major crops like rice, groundnut having been affected, it has decided to cover about 12 lakh ha with pulses, sunflower, castor and coarse cereals as alternative crops.

As per the action plan proposed by the Agriculture Department, farmers in the Rayalaseema districts have been advised not to sow sunflower in October 2002 in view of lack of soil moisture and instead go in for Bengal gram as an alternative crop. Farmers are advised that this move would be equally remunerative and less risky.

The State department has also has extended 97,276 quintals of seed towards supply of 50 per cent subsidy. So far, Rs 21.50 crore has been deployed towards the seed requirement.

The erratic southwest monsoon has resulted in a deficit rainfall of about 34 per cent in Andhra Pradesh, As against a normal rainfall of 628.5 mm, the State received about 411 mm, forcing the Government to declare about 933 mandals as drought-affected. This is set to leave a significant impact, with the kharif foodgrain production set to fall nearly about 50 per cent, according to preliminary Government estimates.

While on the one hand, the total cropped area has come down drastically due to poor rainfall in most districts of the State, even in cases where sowing operations have been taken up, the yield is also likely to come down significantly, the Chief Minister, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, has said.

As against a total average 81 lakh hectares, 62.74 lakh ha, which is about 77 per cent of the normal area, was covered under various crops during the kharif 2001-2002. In fact, during last year's kharif, the total cropped area was estimated at about 81.80 lakh ha. The foodgrain output is set to come down to about 43 lakh tonnes this year as against 86 lakh tonnes last year. .

Some of the crops, which have had less acreage under cultivation include rice, which was sown in just about 64 per cent of the normal cropped area, jowar (64 per cent), bajra (64 per cent), groundnut (77 per cent) and cotton (65 per cent). Further, the Government has indicated that most dry crops will suffer from yield loss due to moisture stress.

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