The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Scanty rainfall affects sowing in State

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Thursday, Jul 09, 2009
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Scanty rainfall affects sowing in State

Special Correspondent

Cropped area below 25 p.c. of normal

With a deficit of 39 p.c., State receives 90.1 mm rainfall
No inflows in any of the major reservoirs, tanks

HYDERABAD: A month after the monsoon set in, scanty rainfall has badly affected agricultural sowing in several parts of the State.

The cropped area was less than 25 per cent of the season’s normal in a dozen districts – Srikakulam, East and West Godavari, Krishna, Gutnur, Prakasam, Kurnool, Anantapur, Kadapa, Nizamabad, Nalgonda and Khammam.

The farming activity was high in Nellore and to a certain extent in Adilabad, the agriculture department stated on Wednesday.

With a deficit of 39 per cent, the State has received just 90.1 mm rainfall during the season so far as against 102 mm for the corresponding period last year and 218 mm in 2007.

However, the districts of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Kurnool, Ranga Reddy and Mahbubnagar received normal rains.

There were no inflows in any of the major reservoirs and tanks.

In spite of poor rains, sowings picked up well in the past one week as the acreage improved by five lakh hectares. The total area sown to date was 17.94 lakh hectares against season’s normal of 79.07 lakh hectares (23 per ccnt).

Paddy which is supposed to be the largest crop was planted over just 1.55 lakh hectares against a normal of 25.53 lakh hectares. Cotton, however, came up over 5.79 lakh hectares and groundnut over 2.03 lakh hectares.

Agriculture Commissioner Sunil Sharma hoped the situation would improve in a few days.

He denied reports about shortage of seed and said 95 per cent of subsidised seed was already shifted for distribution.

The schedule for supply of fertilizers was also met.

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