Hyderabad: Though agricultural operations have picked-up across Telangana for the present Kharif 2024 crop season, farmers are being cautious as 11 districts have received deficit rains this month.
Adilabad, Komuram-Bheem Asifabad, Nizamabad, Nirmal, Kamareddy, Peddapalli, Jagtial, Rajanna-Sircilla, Mulugu, Bhupalapally and Bhadradri Kothagudem districts in Telangana have received deficit rainfall, with Mancherial recording a ‘large deficit’ in rainfall this season as of now.
Jogulamba Gadwal district has received maximum rainfall (large excess) this season as of Wednesday, June 19, by recording 153.5 mm rainfall which is a long deviation from last year’s 25.8 mm rainfall as on the same date. It is still much higher than 44.6 mm rainfall which has been the normal rainfall by this time of the year.
However, taking the state as an average, this year’s rainfall in June has been better than last year’s south west monsoons in June. Between June 1- 19, there has been a rainfall of 85.3 mm, as against 15.7 mm rainfall recorded by this time last year. The normal rainfall projection as on date is 78.5 mm. There has been a deviation of 8.7% to normal rainfall as of Wednesday, according to data from the Telangana Agriiculture department.
However, the water availability in the state is lower than what it used to be. All the major reservoirs in Telangana are holding 223.53 thousand million cubic feet (TMC) as on Wednesday, as against 370.02 tmcft on this day last year.
Farmers in Telangana have also been taking up sowing of rainfed crops like jowar, bajra, maize, ragi, pulses, groundnut, soybean, cotton etc., with paddy being raised under the assured irrigation sources.
Though paddy sowing which is still in nursery stage has been limited as of now, sowing trends in Telangana show that farmers are going for cotton cultivation, to be on the safe side this year, as cotton crop is more drought-prone. The Telangana government has also been encouraging farmers to go for cotton cultivation this season, as there is a high demand for cotton globally.
While the normal area of cotton cultivation is 50,48,904 acres in Kharif season, the same last yearwas 1,14,317 acres. However, this year, it has increased to 15,60,677 acres, which shows that the farmers are being cautious in choosing the right crop for the prevailing climatic conditions and availability of assured and non-assured water this season.
It is interesting to note that many farmers in the Nizamabad district are cultivating maize this season. The normal area for maize cultivation in the district is 38,056 acres, and last year by this time the maize sown was in 2,258 acres. However, this season it has gone up to 15,939 acres, which is an indication that the farmers in this district are being cautious with regard to the crop as well.
As against the normal area of cultivation of 1,31,02,372 acres across the state for Kharif crop season, the same last year was 1,53,889 acres. This year, it has grown to 20,22,603 acres as of Wednesday, according to the weekly report of the Agriculture department.
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