The districts in the Rayalseema regions are better placed than those in the coastal area as far as the rainfall is concerned in the sixth week of kharif season.
While Chittoor, Kadapa, Anantapur and Kurnool of the Rayalaseema region have received an average rainfall deficit of 37%, the figure in the nine coastal districts is 45%.
While the north coastal districts of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, East and West Godavari have received an average rainfall deficit of 45%, the south coastal districts of Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam and Nellore recorded a higher deficit of 48%.
During the corresponding period (June 1 to July 5) in 2018 kharif, the State had recorded an average excess rainfall of 7%.
While Rayalaseema had, as usual, recorded an average deficit of 13%, the north coastal area received an average excess of 21% and south coastal 1%.
But the plight of the Rayalaseema farmers continues to be the same as every kharif.
Crucial factor
YSRCP general secretary and farmers’ wing chairman M.V.S. Nagireddy said weather played a crucial role in sowing of crops in the rain-fed areas.
In the irrigated areas, the farmers had gone for sowing after water was released into the canals.
But in the rain-fed districts of Rayalaseema, they were forced to sow crop (groundnut) only when there was rain.
“The loss they incur if there is no proper rain immediately after sowing is huge,” he explained.
The farmers of coastal Andhra, however, have other issues to cope with. As the sowing gets delayed, the threat of cyclones, which usually hit the coast during late September or early November, looms large.
While the farmers across the State have sown paddy, jowar, bajra, maize, ragi, red gram, green gram, black gram, groundnut, sesamum, castor, sunflower, cotton, chilli, onion and turmeric in kharif, the sowing of none of these crops has crossed a fourth of the normal area as on July 5.
