Rain boon for sowing in AP, Telangana

The sowing in the delta region of Krishna and Godavari has picked up in the past week

Widespread rainfall in Karnataka and neighbouring parts of Maharashtra has been a relief to farmers in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

Following heavy inflows from the Narayanpur dam in Karnataka, the Priyadarshini Jurala reservoir in Mahabubnagar district of Telangana has received  100,000 cusecs (cubic ft a second) of water. Officials say Jurala could attain the full reservoir level of 318.56 ft if the heavy discharge from Karnataka continues for two more days.

The Sunkesula reservoir in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh has also got heavy inflow and officials released 41,000 cusecs to the Srisailam reservoir.

"They have opened 25 crest gates of Narayanpur dam on the upper levels. Owing to this, agricultural operations have picked up pace in Telangana and sowing on around 2.6 million hectares (ha) took place during the past two days," agriculture officials said.

In Telangana, the cultivation of cotton, red gram, maize and soybean has kept the overall extent of kharif cultivation in a meaningful position.

However, the extent of paddy cultivation, currently at 200,000 ha as against a normal of 300,000 ha, and 1.04 million ha for the entire kharif, is set to be affected as the rainfall deficit has been at least 40 per cent. Officials here have suggested farmers dependent on borewells not take up paddy, as the prospects of the monsoon in this area over the next two months is not encouraging.

Pulses are the most affected, green gram and red gram, due to the prolonged dry spell in June and July. As against a normal sowing of 200,000 ha by this time in both varieties, the sown area is about 40 per cent. The normal area of cultivation for the total kharif season in Telangana is about four mn ha.

In Andhra Pradesh, sowing in the delta region of Krishna and Godavari has picked up in the past week. Farmers in paddy-intensive East and West Godavari, in anticipation of good flows into the reservoirs in August, are planting short-duration varieties such as MTU 1010 and 1001 that can be harvested in 115-120 days, after which the rabi season comes into the picture.

Speaking to Business Standard, the regional agriculture department joint directors in West and East Godavari and Krishna districts were confident the entire crop area would be covered by mid-August. "We have advised farmers to plant seeds directly in the fields, instead of sowing through the regular nursery method," said V Narsimhulu, joint director for Krishna district.  

Around 110,000 ha under paddy has been transplanted till date in East and West Godavari of the total 500,000 ha. The rest would see short-variety rice in the next two weeks. In Krishna district, transplantation in paddy happened in only 15,000 ha, less than a tenth of the 227,000 ha total.