After prolonged dry weather which was posing a threat of drought, Vijayapura district received a good spell of rainfall on Thursday.
According to reports, all five taluks of the district began receiving rainfall either from afternoon or in the evening on Wednesday.
Rain, which first started with a drizzle, picked up later and turned into a good spell even leading to flooding of roads in some taluks such as Indi and Muddebihal.
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The rain seems to have now brought some relief to farmers who have completed sowing and were waiting for rainfall as the soil had lost moisture which was affecting the germination process.
As per the information of the Agriculture Department, owing to deficient rainfall, 27 % of the agriculture land in the district has remained uncultivated in the kharif season.
The main reason for worry among farmers is that only 30 % of the district is covered under irrigation while 70 % cultivable land is rain dependent.
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While on the one hand, the farmers could not take up sowing in some areas of the district, nearly 50 % crop loss is expected owing to inadequate moisture in the soil on the other.
Of the total target area of 4.3 lakh hectares, sowing has been taken up on only 3.43 lakh hectares by farmers because of scanty rain in the kharif season, according to officials.
“In the beginning of the kharif season, the farmers had completed sowing of major crops such as tur. But due to insufficient rain post sowing, nearly 50 % crop has withered away and nothing can be done about it now,” said the officials.
The officials said that while there can be no recovery of the loss already incurred by the farmers, the crop that were waiting for rain could now possibly sustain.
Amid this, District in-charge Minister M.C. Managuli has said that though no decision has been taken yet to declare the district drought-hit, he has asked the officials to keep track of the situation to help farmers who are in distress owing to scanty rainfall.