Hyderabad: Incessant rains over the past three days, while raking up perennial monsoon woes, have nevertheless given a new impetus to the kharif crop season across the state, which were reeling from poor water level in reservoirs owing to a dry weather spell.
Kharif sowing operations are expected to pick up as heavy rains led to good inflows to reservoirs, shortly after 23 of the 33 districts in the state recorded rainfall deficit.
Paddy and cotton, among other crops, were sown in an extent of over 57 lakh acres, so far. As dry spells continued till the third week of July, farmers feared damage to standing crops, with reports of crops withering away also reported from a few districts in the past two weeks.
However, incessant rains over the past three days have washed out fears of farmers, who are now hoping for good crop yield.
According to the agriculture department, the crop plantation area of 57.24 lakh acres is lower than the normal crop sown area, estimated at 1.24 crore acres. However, the number of plantations increased this year, given that the crop-sown area was 53.66 lakh acres, during the same period last year.
Cotton topped the list, with the highest crop-sown area of 37.98 lakh acres, but was lower than the normal crop-sown area of 50.59 lakh acres.
Due to drought-like conditions until now, paddy cultivation was badly affected, as it is a water-intensive crop. Farmers adopted a wait-and-watch policy due to dry spells and poor inflows into reservoirs, due to which paddy was sown in just 7.94 lakh acres, against the normal crop-sown area of 49.86 lakh acres.
Heavy rains and good inflows into reservoirs are, however, expected to boost paddy plantation and cultivation across the state.
Overall, northern Telangana districts fared better in terms of agriculture, due to receiving higher amounts of rainfall than their southern counterparts. But, the entire state is expected to benefit from the recent rain spells.
