Sowing works decline

Anantapur: Alarmingly, the cultivation of paddy has come down to one-fifth of normal area sowed in the last three years.Same is the case with ragi and jowar used as main foodgrain in the district due to prolonged dry spell.Official sources said, paddy, which was sown in 24,828 acres during 2010-11 has come down to 4,653 acres in Rabi season for 2011-12. Shockingly, the cultivation of ragi, which is highly consumed in many parts of Anantapur district in the form of ‘ragi sankati,’ had witnessed sharp decline.
Ragi, which  has been cultivated in 1,122 acres in 2009-10 was seen in 156 acres for the current rabi season.
Jowar, which was an essential foodgrain for southern and eastern areas of the district, had also witnessed sharp decline in cultivation though it requires less quantity of water.Presently jowar was cultivated in 8,139 acres against 17,721 acres in 2009-10.
Farmers had totally dropped cultivation of redgram for the current season, sources said and added that the same was cultivated in 316 acres two years ago. In Anantapur district, the farmers primarily depend on tanks, wells and canals for their irrigation needs.
Though, Tungabhadra high level canal project is supporting an ayacut of 51,771 hectares, the foodgrain production was reportedly coming down in recent past.Apart from TB HLMC, there are 5,353 irrigation tanks and about 87,000 wells in district supporting the irrigation needs of farmers.
The gross irrigated area is 1,54,000 hectares and the net irrigated area is 1,25,000 hectares in the district. Out of net irrigated area, 31 per cent forms surface water irrigation and 69 percent ground water.The other areas have to mainly depend on monsoons to get water source.
The major river Penna, which flows through Parigi, Ramagiri, Kambadur, Kalyandurg, Uravakonda, Pamidi, and Tadipatri areas, had reportedly failed to meet the irrigation needs of the farmers.Narasimhamurhty, a farmer from Parigi, lamented, “The river flows only if it rains heavily in upstream areas of  Chikkabalapur and Gowribidanur areas in Karnataka.”
Another farmer Athaulla from Hindupur, said that he dropped the idea of sowing paddy due to deficit rainfall. Chitravathi, Kushavathi, Jayamangali and other small rivers had to depend on rainfall in upstream of Karnataka.