At the end of the four-month South-West monsoon on Tuesday, Telangana had a deficit rainfall of 30 per cent against normal as all districts with the exception of Mahabubnagar experienced severe spells of drought.
While Mahabubnagar had a normal rainfall of +19 to -19 per cent rainfall, the remaining nine districts of the State faced a deficit ranging from -20 to -59 per cent. The season’s normal rainfall for the State was 715.1 mm but this time it was only 498.1 mm, according to a report put out by the agriculture department.
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The report also said only 24 out of 464 mandals in the State had excess rainfall (+20 per cent and above). They included 16 mandals of Mahabubnagar. Normal (+19 to -19 per cent) was in 87 mandals, deficit (-20 to -59 per cent) in 330 mandals and scanty (-60 to -99 per cent) in 23 mandals.
In the backdrop of adverse seasonal conditions, the total area sown in the State was 38.84 lakh hectares (96 per cent) against the season’s normal of 40.38 lakh hectares. Cotton was the major crop as it was cultivated in 16.76 lakh hectares. Paddy in 8.17 lakh hectares and maize in 5.04 lakh hectares were the other major crops.
The cropped area was the highest in Mahabubnagar (7.19 lakh hectares) and lowest in Ranga Reddy (1.62 lakh hectares).
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However, paddy cultivation declined in Mahabubnagar by 11,000 hectares as compared to last year but the cotton area in Adilabad which is the highest producer of the crop went up by 23,000 hectares.
The sowing of rain-fed crop lagged behind due to inactive monsoon but the paddy transplantations with over aged nurseries was taken up due to release of water from Nagarjunasagar project.