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Nothing seems to be rolling in favour of farmers in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh this year. As they wait for a decision on waiver of loans, lakhs of farmers are also looking at the skies praying for rain.
Sowing has not begun in most parts of both these States. Wherever it has, farmers are desperately looking for a few showers to protect their crops.
All the major crops of paddy, maize, groundnut and cotton have been hit. This might hit the overall productivity and production.
As the monsoon has failed to spread evenly as per schedule, the deficit in some parts of the States ranges from 50 to 90 per cent.
Farmers in Telangana have been able to plant only in 11 per cent of the total area of 40 lakh hectares under kharif. “About 8,000 hectares of area under maize in Mahboobnagar district are withering,” a senior official in the Agriculture Department told Business Line .
The coverage of foodgrains is just 75,000 hectares, one-third of the usual area that should have been covered by now.
The situation in the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, is no better.
Farmers there have covered just seven per cent of the normal area of 42 lakh hectares. By this time, plantings should have been completed in at least 20 lakh hectares.
Nellore, the only district where the coverage in better, too has reported a 25 per cent drop in plantings.
“The monsoon is inactive. Isolated showers were received, resulting in agricultural operations being affected. We have an overall deficit of 57 per cent in rainfall,” an official of AP Agriculture Department said. Plantings of foodgrains have been completed in only 50 per cent of area of 1.51 lakh hectares as paddy, the predominant kharif crop in the coastal areas, has been sown only in 42,000 hectares (80,000 hectares).
According to India Meteorological Department, monsoon is 54 per cent deficient in coastal Andhra Pradesh and 82 per cent in Telangana. Surprisingly, it is 8 per cent excess in the Rayalaseema region.
On the other hand, the Central Water Commission data shows poor storage level in Nagarjuna Sagar and Srisailam reservoirs. While storage level is zero in Srisailam, in Nagarjuna Sagar the water level is only four per cent of the capacity.
On the other hand, the levels in Sriramsagar, Somasila and Lower Maniar are higher than last year.
Last year, the rabi crop in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana was affected as these regions were battered by at least three cyclones.
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