When the State goes dry: failure of northeast monsoon in Andhra Pradesh

Failure of northeast monsoon has hit farmers in the State very hard

The State is facing the worst drought of recent times with crop in lakhs of hectares under stress. The failure of the northeast monsoon has hit farmers really hard. While a rainfall deficit of 73% was recorded in October — the first month of the northeast monsoon — there seems to be no let up in the second month recording a rainfall deficit of 64%.

The rainfall in mandals is categorised into ‘excess’, ‘normal’, ‘deficit’ and ‘scanty’ on the basis of deviation of rainfall from normal. Mandals having precipitation of 20% and over have been categorised as excess rainfall mandals. Similarly those having precipitation of 20% less and under have been categorised as rainfall deficit mandals and those with a precipitation of 60% less or under have been categorised as rainfall scanty mandals.

While 291 of the total 676 mandals in the State have been declared drought-affected, 432 mandals are rainfall deficit and another 105 are mandals with scanty rainfall as on date. Only 12 mandals in the State have recorded excess rainfall this year.

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With a normal monsoon being forecast, farmers went for sowing as usual. red gram, ragi, sugarcane, groundnut, bajra, maize, jowar, black gram, castor, cotton and green gram were sown in 16,46,251 hectares, according to Agriculture Department sources. However standing crop in 51.9% of the area, that is 8,53,680 hectares is under "critical moisture stress".

Farmers of Kurnool and Anantapur, who sowed the listed crops in 4,34,413 and 4,09,899 hectares respectively, are the worst hit. Crop in 3,28,565 hectares (75.6% of total area with listed crops) is facing critical moisture stress and is on the verge of withering. In Anantapur district, standing crop in 3,03,820 hectares is on the verge of withering.

While in Kurnool district cotton in 2,16,350 hectares is facing critical moisture stress, Groundnut in 2,45,122 hectares in Anantapur district is under critical stress.

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Area under moisture stress

Taking into consideration the area sown, 98.5% of the crop sown (32,647 hectares) in Srikakulam district is facing critical stress. The farmers of Vizianagaram district are also facing withering of their crop standing in 83.1% (61,437 hectares) of the area sown this season. In Guntur district, standing crop in 71,731 hectares is facing critical moisture stress, department sources said.

88% of groundnut under stress

Sources said that 87.8% groundnut sown in the State is under critical moisture stress. Similarly, nearly two-thirds of the bajra, cotton and castor, half the maize standing in 56,205 hectares is on the verge of withering. A fourth of the jowar and red gram that have been sown are under critical stress, sources said.