The cumulative seasonal monsoon rainfall in Telangana was 48 per cent less than normal and only 43 out of 464 mandals in the newly formed State received normal or excess rain fall from June 1 to August 5.
Faced with this alarming situation, the Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture (CRIDA) in association with Prof. Jayashankar Agricultural University has prepared contingency plans for all the districts, except Hyderabad, for location specific interventions to sustain agricultural production.
As per the Met office information, the cumulative monsoon rainfall in Telangana till 05.08.2014 was 214.4 mm which is 48% less than normal or Long Period Average (LPA) of 411.0 mm, Minister of State for Agriculture Sanjeev Kumar Balyan told Rajya Sabha in a written reply to Telugu Desam member T. Devendar Goud on Friday.
The Telangana Government could take up relief measures from funds available under State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF). The Centre could provide additional financial assistance from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) on receipt of detailed drought relief memorandum. However, the Centre has not received any drought relief memorandum from Telangana so far, Dr. Balyan said.
The Centre said it has advised the State to make available short duration and drought tolerant varieties of seed to farmers and to keep aside 10 % of funds available under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) and other schemes for undertaking appropriate interventions to mitigate any situation arising out of deficit monsoon.
