The farmers in Telangana have been advised to go for crops like redgram, jowar and castor with the rainfall deficit delaying sowings in several parts of the State.

As a result of laggard weather conditions, sowings in paddy, maize, redgram and greengram have been hit. Soya and cotton fared well.

The latest figures available with the Agriculture Department have put the deficit at 53 per cent as the State received only 140 mm of rain in the kharif season as against the normal rainfall of 294 mm.

Seven out of the nine districts (barring Hyderabad district) have recorded deficit rainfall in the range of 20 to 59 per cent. Nizamabad and Nalgonda are even worse with the deficits touching up to 99 per cent.

“Due to the delay in the onset of monsoon and erratic rainfall received in June, the rain fed crops faced moisture stress in the state. Rains in the first two weeks of July improved the moisture levels,” a senior government official told Business Line .

While paddy sowings were completed only in 76 per cent of the normal (as-on-date) figure of 2.17 lakh hectares, soya acreage has gone up by 19 per cent. Cotton, which is normally grown in 15 lakh hectares in the State, is expected to reach the normal acreage.

“Any delay in other crops because of late rains would help cotton. Farmers would prefer to go to cotton in times of delayed monsoons as they can expect at least some income. They will get at least one or two pickings where as other crops would completely fail them in such adverse conditions,” P Sateesh Kumar, Executive Director of Nuziveedu Seeds, has said.

The other significant crops that could reach the normal levels in the State include turmeric and sugar cane.

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