Monsoon showers bounty on AP

If drought was the problem for Andhra Pradesh farmers last year, this year, there can be no complaint on that count. But the recent heavy rains that is being witnessed of late is surely a source of worry.

The downpour caused by low-pressure has inundated crops on 44,000 hectares, including 28,000 hectares of cotton. “Officials have reported that flood waters might recede and that there may not be any crop losses,” Mr N Raghuveera Reddy, the Minister for Agriculture, said.

Farmers are also grappling with short supply and scarcity of fertilisers in different parts of the State. But Mr Reddy said the Government had set up a monitoring cell to ensure timely supply. “We estimate that the farmers need 11.2 million tonnes. We have made 12 mt of fertiliser ready,” he said.

Rainfall under the influence of the South-West monsoon has been better than the average rainfall after two years. In the last five weeks since June 6, the average rainfall registered in the State has been 396 mm against the normal of 317 mm, an ‘excess' of 25 per cent.

This is compared with 153 mm in 2009 and 311 mm rain fall the year before. All the major reservoirs in the State hold 609.27 tmc of water as against 507.53 tmc.

‘No Damage'

According to the latest information reaching the Agriculture Ministry, incessant rains across the State in the last few days due to low pressure did not have any adverse impact on crops. “We are hopeful that floods caused by last week rains will recede soon and cause no damage to the standing crops,” a senior official of the Ministry told Business Line.

Farmers in the Godavari delta were forced to stop sowing of paddy temporarily due to incessant rains last week. “Progress of monsoon rains helped accelerate the sowings of paddy, oilseeds and cotton to reach a peak. Maize is at knee-height stage, while groundnut is at vegetative-to-flowering stage and sugarcane is at cane development stage. Early kharif paddy is being taken up in Nellore district. Overall, the status of crops is satisfactory,” the official said.

Cropped area

As a result of abundant rains, the total sown area as on date is 59 lakh hectares (lh) as against the normal (to date) of 56 lh and 39.5 lh in 2009. The State grows crops to an extent of 78.23 lakh ha in a season. “The farmers have covered 75 per cent of the area. We expect that the remaining area will be covered in the next few days,” he said.

Coverage of crops such as cotton, groundnut, redgram, chillies and turmeric have either been normal or higher. Cotton has been sown on 16 lh as against 10.77 lh; groundnut on 12.57 lh (12 lh)' redgram on 5.13 lh (3.45 lh) and chillies on 0.38 lh (0.41 lh).

While paddy has been sown on 8 lh against 10 lh, maize on 4.13 l(4.70 lh) and sugarcane 1.77 lh (2.19 lh) were sown marginally lesser than the as-on-date averages. The officials, however, felt that the gaps would be covered in the next few days.