Farmers who abstained from sowing crops owing to scanty rainfall this year, still hope that there may be some rainfall after Ganesh Chaturthi, this month’s end.
In all, there were only four rainy days this month till date. There is a deviation of minus 48.9 per cent rainfall in the district. In all, in June, July and August last year, there were 40 rainy days as against 23 rainy days of the current 2014-2015.
The normal annual rainfall of the district is 993.7 mm. The rainfall recorded in 2013-2014 was 1351.4 mm. The scanty rainfall has been causing distress to farmers who have been waiting to begin farming operations.
Speaking to The Hindu , M. Ramesh, a farmer in Lybarthi village of Wardhannapet mandal said that the village had nearly 3,000 acres of irrigable land of which not even 50 per cent was sown due to lack of sufficient rainfall this season.
Hoping for the best
Farmers in my village hope that there will be some rainfall after Ganesh Chaturthi, he added. The normal rainfall for the period between August 1 and 13 was 99.9 mm but the district has so far received only 36 mm rainfall in the current monsoon season.
In the last 24 hours, only three mandals out of 51 received rain. Devaruppula received a rainfall of 24.2 mm, Narsampet recorded 2.4 mm while Nasimhulupet mandal received 4.2 mm rain leaving all other mandals dry.
It might be noted that the number of rainy days for the corresponding period in 2013-14 was three. Power cuts have only compounded the problems of farmers in the district.
Of the usual 1.31 lakh hectares, paddy was sown in only 32,000 hectares due to poor rainfall.
Few irrigation sources Agricultural scientist R. Uma Reddy explained that the total arable land in the district was about 5.20 lakh hectares, of which only 38 per cent has access to irrigation facilities such as tanks, open and bore wells while 0.02 is irrigated through SRSP canals.
The remaining 52 per cent of arable land is rain-fed. Unless there is good rain or at least minimum rainfall, farmers cannot start their agricultural operations, he explained.
