The district seems to be staring at another drought this year with the district not receiving even the average rainfall till now.
Agriculture Department officials say that if the district does not receive rains within a week, then the district is certainly heading towards one more drought this year.
With the hope of receiving a good monsoon, the farmers completed sowing. But with deficient rains, the major portion of the cultivated land is still dry as the soil does not have even the required moisture.
If the situation continues, then the germinated crop would wither away, according to the officials.
Sources say that Vijayapura district has become one of the top five districts facing district with the district receiving only 32% rains in July which is 64% less compared to average rainfall.
June and July are two months for kharif sowing in the district, during which the district should receive 187mm rainfall for good yield, but so far, only 103mm rains have been recorded.
With regard to sowing, so far, sowing is over on 3.1 lakh hectares against the 4.3 lakh targeted area in the district.
Of this area, the major share goes to toor which is cultivated on 2.24 lakh hectares land and the remaining crops are groundnut, sunflower, bajra and maize.
Now, with the kharif season over, the farmers can no longer cultivate any crop of this season.
The officials say that even if the district receives rains, many parts of the district will not have a yield more than 30% as a large portion of the crop has withered away. They said that only those farmers, who have some irrigation facility, could save their crop to some extent, but the condition of rain-dependent farmers is worse.
Amid this, the farmers have intensely applied for crop insurance this year as they were aware of the possible drought this year.
