Hyderabad: Eight districts of Telangana continue to reel under deficit rainfall affecting agriculture operations with sugarcane-rich Nizamabad district being the worst hit.
Telangana, as a whole, received 48 per cent deficit rainfall from June 1, till date, forcing Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao to ask officials to gear up to implement contingency plans in the next four or five days if there is deficient rainfall.
Mr Rao also asked farmers not to get distressed and resort to suicides. He promised to extend all support in the event of monsoon failure .
However, the Met department said monsoon is active over Telangana and good rains are expected.
Nizamabad registered scanty rainfall category (-60 per cent to -90 per cent), Adilabad, Medak, Warangal, Karimnagar, Ranga Reddy, Nalgonda and Khammam registered deficit rainfall (-20 per cent to -59 per cent).
Only Hyderabad and Mahbubnagar received rains during the past one week. The average rainfall in Telangana from June 1 till date is 124.1 mm as against the normal of 238.8 mm; a deficit of 48 per cent.
Mr Rao has conducted a detailed review of the kharif operations, monsoon conditions and deficit rainfall in many districts.
Due to intermittent rains, sowing has picked up in areas where there has been rainfall, but not in places where the dry spell continues. The total area sown during kharif till date is 18.771 lakh hectares as against the normal of 23.71 lakh hectares.
“Due to delay in the onset of monsoon and erratic rainfall during during June, the rain-fed crops faced moisture stress in Telangana districts. Recent rains have improved the situation,” an agriculture official said.
