Andhra farmers may go for short duration crops.
The recent rains have wreaked havoc on agriculture farmers, particularly paddy farmers in ten districts of Andhra Pradesh. West Godavari, Krishna, Khammam and Guntur districts have suffered maximum damage.
According to estimates crops in close to 4,00,000 hectare (ha) have been submerged. It is likely that farmers in 1,20,000-1,60,000 hectare will have to go for short duration crops this season.
As for the government, it will take about four days to assess the loss in monetary terms.
While paddy crop in 2,72,436 ha, has been submerged, cotton is under water in 80,005 ha, maize in 4,693 ha, soyabean in 7,019 ha, groundnut in 3,637 ha, blackgram in 9,778 ha, chilli in 2,029 ha, red gram in 977 ha, jowar in 786 ha. Though about 60 per cent of the crop is likely to survive the rains, the loss in the remaining area is likely to have a cascading effect on the prices of the commodities.
State agriculture commissioner D Srinivas told Business Standard that with water now receding, the government had taken up the enumeration of the damaged fields from Wednesday.
The government will ask the farmers to go for short-term crops (like MTU 1010, 1001 varieties of paddy) that have a lifecycle of about 120 days, for which seeds would be provided at a 50 per cent subsidy. The yield will be nearly the same as long duration crops.
The government, through the AP Seed Corporation, is also making arrangements to provide seeds to farmers. Officials would also find out ways to save the crop after water drains out of the fields, according to agriculture minister N Raghuveera Reddy.
As many as 811 irrigation tanks have breached and over 160 roads have been converted into sheets of water.
Till Monday, the state received a rainfall of 413.1 mm as against 358.3 mm last year, about 15 per cent more. The Andhra region, covering the coastal districts, received 31 per cent more rain at 440.5 mm as compared with 335.7 mm last year. Over 12,500 houses have been damaged apart from loss of livestock, according to relief and rehabilitation commissioner K Ratna Prabha.
Though the reduced crop would result in low productivity, the industry and the trade bodies are yet to assess the impact it would have in revenue terms.
The officials, however, said there would not be a major fall in the paddy output as the farmers still have time for short duration crops. However, the rains have come in handy for cotton growers in many districts as the fields have been under a prolonged dry spell.
