Ryots pray for skies to open up in Andhra Pradesh’s arid Prakasam district

Farmers in drought-prone Prakasam district hope to go for sowing of Kharif crops with revival of southwest monsoon in July. Rainfall activity picked up in July, but crop coverage was only 5% of normal. Weathermen predict increased rainfall in coming fortnight, allowing farmers to sow pulses, oilseeds, coarse grains, red gram, cotton & vegetables. Market price of tomato crossing ₹100, cultivation likely to cross 600 hectares.

Revival of the southwest monsoon in the second fortnight of July has raised hopes, albeit belatedly, among farmers in drought-prone Prakasam district to go for sowing of Kharif crops.

The district recorded a 25% deficit rainfall in June as it experienced only 43.2 mm of rainfall in June as against the normal rainfall of 57.9 mm with only five rainy days. However, rainfall activity picked up in July with 11 rainy days especially in the fag-end, according to a report compiled by the Agriculture Department. The district, with a major portion of the arable land being rainfed, recorded 71.2 mm as against the normal rainfall of 87.8 mm in the second month of the southwest monsoon season.

As a result, the crop coverage was a mere 5% of the normal cropped area of 2.17 lakh hectares. However, there is still hope as the Kharif and Rabi cropping seasons overlap in the district, said Agriculture Joint Director S. Srinivasa Rao.

Cultivation of paddy and irrigated dry crops is largely dependent upon the water storage in the reservoirs across the Krishna in the State, mainly Nagarjunasagar reservoir, which usually gets filled up only in August or September.

With weathermen predicting increased rainfall activity in the coming fortnight, farmers can go for sowing of pulses, oilseeds and coarse grain crops in a big way, he suggested. The department expects the crop coverage to reach the normal extent in the next two months, he added.

The sowing of red gram, the principal pulse crop in the district has been taken up only in 265 hectares (0.3%) so far as against the normal extent of 80,000 hectares. The cotton crop coverage is a mere 4% of the normal cropped area of 33,000 hectares in the district.

However, the sowing of oil seeds was a relatively better at 809 hectares (15%) of the normal sown area of 4,700 hectares. With the market price of tomato crossing the ₹100 mark, farmers have began its cultivation in over 100 hectares so far. Its extent is likely to cross the 600-hectare mark this year. Other vegetables were sown in over 500 hectares (25% of normal cropped area), the report said.