Venkateswara Reddy, a farmer from Podili, was happy when the southwest monsoon turned active in the third week of June ending the prolonged dry spell, as Prakasam district has been in the grip of drought for the past five years.
Taking advantage of it, Mr. Reddy and other fellow farmers religiously performed ‘Yeruvaka’ and took up ploughing operations hoping for follow through rains in July to complete sowing operations in time. Their happiness was short-lived as the southwest monsoon, after delayed onset, failed to bring enough rains in July so far.
The 37.1% deficient rainfall during June only increased to 41.7% by the second week of July, giving anxious moments to farmers across the district.
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If the present trend continues, the farmers would not be able to take up kharif crop cultivation even in half of the normal extent of 2.13 lakh hectares, fears a group of farmers in S.N. Padu looking at the cloudy sky which failed to culminate in downpour.
The farmers are hoping against hope for the sky to open up so that the rainfall deficit is bridged in the next two to two-and-half months or so, as the weathermen predict low pressure area around July 17 off the Andhra Pradesh coast reviving monsoon activity after a lull.
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The crop coverage was only a mere 2% of the normal sowing area of 2.13 lakh hectares till July 10, and it is expected to pick up in the subsequent months, as kharif and rabi cropping seasons overlap in the district, feel sources in the Agriculture Department.
"All is not lost as farmers can go ahead with sowing of the distributed Sunn hemp, green manure, red gram seeds till August 15," opines Agriculture Joint Director P.V. Sriramamurthy.
"If there is not enough precipitation even by then, the farmers will have no option but to go for alternative crops like Bajra, Jowar, black gram, cow pea, horse gram and castor," he adds.
Krishna water
The State government should ensure 70 tmcft of Krishna water from the Nagarjunasagar reservoir to cultivate at least irrigated dry crops in the entire ayacut of 4.44 lakh acres taking into view the drought situation for a longer duration, Andhra Pradesh Rythu Sangam secretary P. Venkata Rao says.
Though entitled to assured water by the Bachawat Tribunal, Prakasam farmers, being in the tail-end of the ayacut, had never cultivated in the full extent, thanks to diversion of water in the upper riparian districts.