Deficit rains affect paddy cultivation

Aug 23, 2012 - C.R. Gowri Shanker |

Hyderabad

Tags:

A deficit rainfall so far this monsoon and lack of water in irrigation schemes have made the situation grim for the state’s paddy cultivators, as latest reports indicate a shortfall of nearly 7-10 lakh hectares in the ongoing kharif season. According to agriculture department officials, the Krishna delta and ayacut under Nagarjuna Sagar project (NSP) are the worst hit. Though on paper certain areas could be additionally brought under paddy cultivation in the rabi season, officials said it depends on good rain before September.

According to figures collated till Wednesday, paddy has been cultivated on 14.67 hectares across the state against the season’s normal of 26.48 lakh hectares. Last year, 17.50 lakh hectares were under paddy cultivation by this time, just above the normal of 17.22 lakh hectares as of date. A senior agriculture officer told this newspaper that a maximum of another 4 lakh hectares water-intensive paddy could be added, provided there is more rain before the end of kharif season. “Going by the present scenario, there could be shortfall in paddy cultivation from 7 to 10 lakh hectares,” the official said. So far, crops have been sown on total 64.82 lakh hectares, against the normal of 68.31 lakh hectares. The season’s average for all crops is 80.29 lakh hectares. “The water levels have not increased due to inadequate rain in catchments of Krishna basin,” the official said.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/183083" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-502305f9fd956f9859849ba54cac1a93" value="form-502305f9fd956f9859849ba54cac1a93" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="85756731" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>