KARIMNAGAR: With the El Nino weather pattern affecting rainfall across erstwhile Karimnagar district, agriculture authorities have initiated contingency measures for the Kharif season by encouraging farmers to cultivate low water-consuming crops instead of paddy and cotton.
Karimnagar Agriculture Officer J Bhagyalaxmi said a departmental survey found that inadequate irrigation facilities had severely affected crop planning. Farmers have been advised to avoid paddy cultivation this Kharif season and instead take up water-efficient crops such as red gram, green gram, cowpea and sunflower.
According to the Irrigation department, the Lower Manair Dam currently holds 5.568 tmcft of water against its full storage capacity of 24.034 tmcft, sufficient only to meet drinking water requirements for the next 90 days. During the corresponding period last year, the reservoir held 6.30 tmcft.
“Based on the Irrigation department’s report, there is no water available for irrigation even for a single acre. We have instructed farmers to avoid paddy cultivation to prevent further losses and are promoting low water-requirement crops,” Bhagyalaxmi said.
Karimnagar district has a total rain-fed and irrigated ayacut of 1,57,863 acres. As of July 15, nearly 1,90,772 acres remained unsown due to the shortage of irrigation water. In view of the situation, District Collector Chitra Mishra held an emergency review meeting with Agriculture and Irrigation department officials on Thursday to formulate a contingency plan and promote alternative crops.
A similar review meeting was held in Rajanna-Sircilla district on Friday, where Collector Garima Agrawal reviewed the Kharif situation.
Rajanna-Sircilla Agriculture Officer Afzal Begum said the district had been impacted by nearly 40% due to the El Nino effect. Against the normal cultivation area of 2.45 lakh acres, sowing has been taken up in only 93,000 acres, including 42,500 acres of paddy, 49,000 acres of cotton and the remaining area under maize.