With monsoon playing truant yet again, groundnut crop in tens of thousands of acres in the district has either withered away or on the verge of it, despite the best efforts of the State government.
As against the usual crop area of 6.02 lakh hectares, groundnut has been sown in around 70,000 hectares only. It corresponds closely to the most recent government figure of groundnut being down in just ‘11 %’ of the total crop area.
Rainfall deficit for the June-July period till date is 26 % and the deficit for July alone till date is over 50 %.
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The government says that the crop is under ‘stress’ in 7,300 acres in 39 mandals only, basing on remote sensing data and rainfall date beside other data sets.
“The leaves have started to wilt away. If it doesn’t rain in the next three days, I am sure that the crop will be wasted. Even if it rains after ten days, it will be of no use. Then, I can only use the crop for animal feed,” says Govinda Reddy, a farmer who owns 3.4 acres in Raptadu village.
Yet another farmer of Nallamada village, Venkatnarayana Reddy, who has sown groundnut in six acres, complains that rain guns are not available enough to cater to his farm.
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Challenging task
“The crop is withering away and officials say I need to wait for a few more days. I can wait but the crop can’t,” said Venkatnarayana Reddy.
Meanwhile, in water-stressed Kalyanadurgam mandal, seeds have not even germinated sufficiently.
Now, officials are faced with the task of getting tankers to take water to farm ponds and then use micro-irrigation devices such as sprinklers, drip and the more recent innovation of rain guns to save the crop.