The recent rains in Andhra Pradesh have brought cheers to farmers and agriculture officials, with kharif operations picking up. With this wet spell, crop acreage of paddy, pulses and others is expected to reach over 80 per cent in the coming days.
If the rainy days continue and another 50 mm of rainfall is received in the next fortnight, it would help achieve 90 per cent of the targeted production of 58.11 lakh tonnes of food grains this kharif, official sources said.
The deficit rainfall has been recorded 30 per cent till Tuesday. As against normal rainfall of 237.6 mm for this period, the precipitation received was 167.2 mm. Between July 24 and 28, the State has recorded 32.1 mm rain when compared to the average of 24.1 mm. East Godavari, West Godavari, Krishna and Guntur districts have received very good rainfall, said the sources.
While the targeted crop acreage for paddy, coarse grains, pulses and commercial crops for this kharif has been put at 41.72 lakh hectares, the area covered was 12.45 lakh hectares till July 23 ( about 77 per cent) as against the target of 16. 27 lakh hectares till that date.
Similarly, the crop acreage for food grains including paddy, coarse grains and pulses has been put at 3.41 lakh hectares (75 per cent) as against the target of 4.57 lakh hectares till July 23. With regard to oilseeds, the target for cropped area till July 23 was 7.48 lakh hectares, including 6.66 lakh hectares of groundnut and the area covered was 4.41 lakh hectares ( about 59 per cent).
