ONGOLE: Prakasam district farmers have cultivated crops on just 53.43% of the average Kharif seasonal cultivation area due to low rainfall conditions, agriculture officials said.
Up to the first week of September, farmers cultivated crops on 69,000 hectares against the total average of 1.25 lakh hectares, leaving a shortfall of around 2,000 hectares.
District Agricultural Officer S Srinivasa Rao said the IMD forecast heavy rains in the south coastal districts of the State due to a low-pressure area over the Bay of Bengal. However, several areas recorded only light to moderate rainfall in the last few days.
Farmers have cultivated red gram, maize, black gram, and yellow gram in areas that received some rain, while a few planted paddy with bore-well support. Many others continue to wait for rainfall to begin regular Kharif cultivation.
“For the last one month, particularly August, we experienced scorching heat wave conditions and extremely high temperatures across the district, leaving us helpless to start cultivation works. We hope good rains in the next two weeks will allow us to start cultivating regular crops in our fields,” said M Subba Rao, a farmer from Chimakurthy mandal.
Some farmers have shifted to Eucalyptus (Jam oil) and Casuarina (Subabul) plantations, which require minimal irrigation, instead of commercial crops such as tobacco, cotton, and chillies.
“From October 15, we will provide Bengal gram (chickpea) seeds with a 30% subsidy, as well as black gram and yellow gram pulse seeds. Paddy seeds will be supplied with a Rs 5 per kg concession. We now have a total of 5,500 metric tonnes of urea stock, following a recent supply of 1,500 tonnes,” S Srinivasa Rao said.
Officials remain hopeful that adequate rainfall in the coming weeks will boost the seasonal cultivation extent to the desired levels.