Drought spells doom for standing crops in Guntur district

The standing agricultural crops in Guntur district face a threat of withering

Starved of water, the standing agricultural crops in Guntur district face a threat of withering. A disappointing monsoon, and a lakh of tanks or groundwater sources has made the farmers heavily dependent on canal water, for the release of which they are desperately waiting now to save their paddy, cotton and chilli crops. 

Many are forced to incur heavy additional expenditure to pump water to their fields from faraway sources. Farmers B. Sambasiva Rao and his father Nageswara Rao, for instance, have been drawing water using diesel engines and pipes from a canal about one kilometre away for their five-acre chilli crop at Narakoduru village near Guntur. ‘‘We need to wet the crop at least 10 times till harvest, and each round costs around ₹25,000,’‘ laments Mr. Sambasiva Rao.

As a consequence, crop area has also declined in the district. The paddy sown area has come down to 55,456 hectares against the normal of 66,476. Of this, the direct sown area is estimated as 48,991 hectares while transplantation took place in over 6,465 hectares. A total of 52,456 hectares are being cultivated under the canal system, 2,344 under tanks and 150 under borewells. 

Official data reveal that in the case of black gram the sown area is 2,546 hectares against the normal of 2,346; 98 hectares against 150 for red gram; 17,954 hectares against 30,566 in the case of cotton; and 12,274 hectares as against the normal of 22,391 of chilli.

The total sown area of all crops dropped to 96,764 hectares from the normal of 1,35,501.

The district received 16.6 mm rainfall against the normal of 129.4 mm in October during the northeast monsoon which is a big blow, said officials.

Giving details of the current status of various crops, Nunna Venkateswarlu, Joint Director of Agriculture, said paddy is getting ready and maize is at flowering to cob formation stage. Red gram is at vegetative to flowering stage, green gram at pod formation to pod development stage, black gram at vegetative to pod development stage, groundnut and sesame at flowering stage, soybean at flowering to maturity stage, and cotton is at pod formation to first picking stage. Jute is at flowering to maturity stage, chilli at vegetative to flowering stage, and turmeric at vegetative stage.