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A truant monsoon has kept Telangana farmers still guessing. Sowings have been hit in some areas of the State even after six weeks into the kharif season. Nearly 40 per cent of the mandals have received ‘deficient’ rainfall.
There is a total drop of four lakh hectares in the cropped area as per the latest figures. Paddy and maize have been affected because of lack of rains in several areas. The State’s kharif cropped area is put at 43 lakh hectares.
Though the cotton farmers are better off when compared to others, farmers are apprehensive that they might face a tough situation if there are no rains in the next 10-14 days.
Sowings in coarse grains have taken a hit with the farmers sowing in 4.87 lakh hectares as against the average as-on-date cover of 5.36 lakh hectares.
Nearly half of the 30 districts (Hyderabad excluded) have registered a deficit rainfall as on Wednesday. A district is considered to be deficient in rain, if the rainfall fell short by 20-59 per cent. Only Jogulamba Gadwal district has received excess rainfall, with the remaining are in the ‘normal’ rainfall category (plus 19 to minus 19 per cent).
Out of the 584 mandals in the State, 235 come under the mandals that registered ‘deficit’ rainfall and 269 received normal rains. While two mandals received scanty (or no) rainfall, 78 received excess rainfall.
“Paddy sowings and maize crop have suffered most in several areas. Cotton has fared relatively better as it could withstand tough weather conditions to some extent,” T Sagar, Secretary of Telangana State Rythu Sangham, told BusinessLine .
On an average the State should have received 486.4 mm of rain by now (August 16). But it received only 410.6 mm, showing a 16 per cent drop. It cast a shadow on sowings.
According to the latest figures, paddy, soya and jowar crops were sown in the range of 51-75 per cent of the season normal, while onion, bajra, ragi and castor crops covered only 26-50 per cent of the normal area.
It’s cotton that overshoot the normal area, with farmers coming back to the fibre crop after trying alternative crops such as soya and chillis in the last two years. With cotton getting good prices and chillis giving them nightmare last year, they came back to cotton in a big way.
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