With the monsoon playing truant, farmers in Telangana are anxiously awaiting the first showers to kick off the kharif season.
The State has registered a deficit of 56 per cent rainfall. In June, it received 46 mm of rainfall as against the normal average of 105 mm. As a result, sowing activity has not commenced in half of the 10 lakh hectares where sowing should have been completed by now. The newly formed State has an agricultural area of 40 lakh hectares.
Medak, Rangareddy, Nalgonda and Khammam districts fared still worse. They received 60-90 per cent less rainfall than the normal levels. The remaining five agricultural districts (barring Hyderabad) too registered deficit rainfall.