The pace of sowing in farmlands in the State has picked up enormously in the last one month. However, the area normally sown during the period (June 1 to September 6) could not be covered because of the delay in the onset of monsoon and floods in a majority of the rivers.
The delay in sowing assumes significance as Andhra Pradesh is hit by devastating weather systems in November. Farmers who sow crops late are often victims of cyclones and severe depressions. Despite rainfall deficit, sowing has been good during the past three kharifs – 2016 (81%), 2017 (77%), and 2018 (80%).
In this kharif, however, only 73% of the normal area could be covered.
While 38.30 lakh hectares is normally sown during the period, sowing has been taken up in 28.19 lakh hectares till date.
Kadapa lags behind
Kadapa district, where sowing has been completed in just 18.5% of the normal area, is lagging behind the other districts. Nellore district, where sowing has been completed in only 37.4%, is in the second place from the bottom.
One Rayalaseema district – Chittoor (74.8%), and three Coastal districts – Prakasam (73.4%), Visakhapatnam (74.3%) and Guntur (75.4%) have brought down the average of the State. Srikakulam district, which has achieved 96.9% sowing, is in the first place. East Godavari with 89%, West Godavari with 88.6% and Krishna with 85.7% are in the second, third and fourth places respectively.
The crops that have already been sown are in different stages of growth.
Paddy is the transplantation stage in some areas and tillering stage in some other areas. Jowar and maize are in the vegetative stage in some areas and flowering stage in other areas. Red gram is in the vegetative stage, green gram, black gram, groundnut and sesamum are in flowering and pod formation stages. Sugarcane is in the vegetative stage.
A bulletin from the Department of Agriculture has said that seed distribution is till going on in some districts. The sowing of rain-fed crops is in progress.
