If the scale of groundnut seed distribution is anything to go by, farmers in Anantapur district continue giving up the trade at an alarming rate of over 20 per cent, year on year.
Of the 10 lakh hectares of farm land in the district, farmers in over seven lakh hectares had gone for groundnut, a major crop in the district. In fact, Anantapur has been the largest groundnut producing district in the country. More than 6.5 lakh farmers are involved in the cultivation of the crop.
However, since 2010, there has been a slide in the number of farmers taking to groundnut cultivation. In fact, more than 4 lakh farmers have left farming altogether, going by the number of beneficiaries availing groundnut seed distribution by the government in the district. In 2009, more than 6 lakh farmers availed the offer, while it has come down to 1.30 lakh in the current year, a fall of around 80 per cent.
While the total beneficiaries of the seed distribution by the government increased by almost 72 percent percent to around 2.4 lakh beneficiaries from the meagre 1.39 lakh beneficiaries in 2014, the net sown area of the crop decreased by 20,000 acres to just 1.6 lakh hectares in 2015 from around 1.8 lakh hectares in 2014.
According to Agriculture Department officials, the initial growth in the number of beneficiaries was probably owing to the early and decent spell of rain. But, the poor rainfall later in the district resulted in even fewer farmers taking to groundnut cultivation.
It is a fact that farmers are turning to alternate crops such as cotton.
“Several lakh hectares are expected to be left fallow this year owing to lack of rain, institutional credit, ground water and willingness to experiment with agriculture,” says Malla Reddy of AF Ecology Centre.
