Kharif operations have begun in a small way using water from rainfall received in the form of summer storms in the State. The bleak water position is, however, a source of anxiety to the farmers who have gone ahead with sowing.
All farmers will go for a crop this season to avail the benefits of the State government’s Rythu Bharosa Scheme as part of which each them will be given ₹ 12,500 as investment support.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) had earlier predicted the onset of the South-West Monsoon (2019) in Kerala on June 8 and it reaching Andhra Pradesh on June 11-12. But according to a more recent weather bulletin, the monsoon might be a little delayed due to a low pressure in the Arabian Sea intensifying into a depression and subsequently into a cyclone.
Rainfall deficit
While the State as a whole recorded a rainfall deficit of 15% in the first week of the agricultural season, excess rainfall to the tune of 20% was recorded in Vishakapatnam and Anantapur, normal rain was recorded in Vizianagaram, East Godavari and Guntur districts, deficit (-20% to -50%) rainfall in Prakasam, Chittoor, Kadapa and Kurnool districts. Interestingly, scanty (-60% to -99%) rainfall was recorded in the coastal districts of Srikakulam, West Godavari, Krishna and Nellore.
While irrigated and irrigated dry crops were normally sown in 38.30 lakh hectares in the 13 districts during kharif, sowing of paddy, maize, greengram, blackgram, groundnut, sesamum and cotton has already begun in Vizianagaram, Vishakapatnam, West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam, Nellore and Chittoor districts, according to data of the Department of Agriculture.
Farmers are anxious because the water levels in the reservoirs and the groundwater reserves in the State are low. According to the Water Resources Department, the 108 reservoirs in the State are more than 77% empty. Reservoirs that have the capacity to hold 980.99 tmcft they currently had only 216.10 tmcft (that is 22.03% of total capacity).
The groundwater position too is bleak with the level falling 8 metres below ground level in 65 % of the State. The groundwater position is the worst in Anantapur with the level in 55.47% of the district falling to 20 metres below ground level and in 35.77 % of the district the level falling to below 8 metres.
