Dry fields, canals with no water, piled up haystacks and farmers in pensive mood. Come Krishna district, these are the scenes you will witness in thousands of hectares. With the much-expected rain playing truant owing to the delay in onset of monsoon, the farmers are now a worried a lot over the prospects of kharif season.
Though there was a respite from the soaring temperatures and heat waves for people since Friday, there was no relief for the farming community which is eagerly waiting for the rain.
No agriculture activity is being seen either in delta or in the upland areas.
Of the 3.5 lakh hectare of total cultivable area in Krishna district, not even five per cent of the land was tilled so far.
Migration“The delay in monsoon has shattered our hopes. Tenant farmers are worried as they have taken lands on lease by paying huge money. On the other side, there is no work for thousands of farm labourers which is forcing them to migrate to other places in search of jobs,” rues V. Brahmaiah of Pamarru, a farmer.
“There is no rainfall and water is yet to be released into canals. Even if farmers start sowing operations now, seeds will not germinate due to less moisture in the soil,” says K. Nageswara Rao, another farmer from Avanigadda. Millers have not paid to some farmers for the produce they bought during last Rabi. If the situation continues, the kharif acreage in the district will come down, lamented G. Rambabu, a tenant farmer from Kuchipudi village.
