Anantapur: Farmers keep fingers crossed
Poor rainfall has apparently impacted the sowing of groundnuts.
ANANTAPUR: Low pressure over Bay of Bengal would likely improve acreage of groundnut sowing in the region. Presently, the groundnut sowings were confined to just 65,000 acres as against 8 lakh hectares of normal extent in Anantapur district alone due to rain deficit during the ongoing kharif season. Poor rainfall has apparently impacted the sowing of groundnuts.
Parigi mandal received just 2.2 mm rainfall while Yellanur mandal received only 3.9 mm in July till Tuesday. Vidpanakal mandal recorded 2.9 mm rainfall till July 18. Official records said 1.3 mm rainfall was recorded on July 13, while 1 mm was recorded on July 16 in Vidapanakal mandal in the district. The legal metrology department noticed a deviation of rainfall in June and July.
About 44.9 mm rainfall was normal while only 19.4 mm was recorded in Anantapur district till July 18, causing a deficiency of 56.8 per cent. The average rainfall for the month of July is 67.4 mm. The agriculture department observed poor sowing of groundnut in all parts of the district so far. The farmers were waiting for showers to go for sowing, but majority of fields are emp-ty. The low pressure over Bay of Bengal might help farmers take up groundnut sowing by last week of July. “We have the seeds ready but fear another year of massive loss of groundnut,” N. Manjunth, a farmer from Madakasira observed.