Farm activity in Prakasam district has picked up with the southwest monsoon, after playing truant in the early phase, bridging the rainfall deficit in the parched district, which has been in the grip of drought for the last five consecutive years.
Farmers have raised crops in 1.74 lakh hectares so far against 1.45 lakh hectares during the corresponding period the previous year.
The wet spell is highly beneficial to standing crops and will enable the farmers go for sowing in another 87,000 hectares before the end of this month, Agriculture Joint Director P.V. Sriramamurthy has said.
Favourable conditions
The district has received 4% excess rainfall in September under the influence of a fresh low pressure in the west-central Bay of Bengal of the Andhra Pradesh coast.
The weather system is expected to bring more rainfall before the kharif sowing gets completed this month-end, he said. The department has fixed an ambitious target of 2.63 lakh hectare crop coverage against the normal sown area of 2.13 lakh hectares during kharif.
Sowing of red gram, the principal pulse crop, has been taken up in a record 93,618 hectares this year against the normal 78,000 hectares. Cotton coverage is 43,700 hectares and chilli 19,000 hectares so far.
Paddy seedlings
Meanwhile, farmers coming under the Nagarjunasagar Right Bank Canal Zone II area started raising paddy seedlings to grow the food crop in 33,000 hectares this year, with the major reservoirs across the Krishna – Srisailam and Nagarjunsagar – filled to the brim.
Though the southwest monsoon arrived late, the deficit, which was 30% up to August, has reduced to less than 4.9% in September.
The district, on an average, received 300 mm rainfall till September 18 against the normal 316.11 mm.
While 10 mandals registered excess rainfall, 30 received normal rainfall and 16 deficit rainfall, an Agriculture Department report said.
