VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh has been experiencing near dry-spell conditions since July 27. Out of 13 districts, four have been getting deficient rainfall, six districts normal and three districts excess.
Though there has been very little to no rains in the state for more than two weeks, the cumulative rainfall in the State is 1.6 per cent surplus than the normal. On August 1, the state had 12.8 per cent surplus rainfall and in the seven days since then, it decreased to 1.6 per cent surplus.
MeT department officials say that situation might gradually change from next week as scattered rainfall is predicted, which is expected to improve further by mid-August. Most of the farmers across the state, who are in the last leg of sowing various crops, have their fingers crossed.
According to statistics with the Andhra Pradesh State Development Planning Society (APSDPS) till August 8, against the normal rainfall of 283.2 mm, the actual rainfall was 287.8 mm.
Nellore district has 27.1 per cent deficit rainfall, the highest in the State. As against normal rainfall of 169.1 mm, the district has received only 123.3 mm. Visakhapatnam district is placed second in deficit rainfall with 24 per cent shortage.
Against normal rainfall of 367.3 mm, the district has received only 279.2 mm. Srikakulam and Vizianagaram are the other two districts having deficit rainfall - 21.9 per cent and 21 per cent, respectively.
On the other hand, three Rayalaseema districts -Anantapur, Kadapa and Chittoor - have surplus rainfall. Anantapur has recorded 57 per cent surplus rains followed by Kadapa, 55.6 per cent.
If we look at the daily rainfall for the last two weeks (July 25 to August 8), it was mostly dry and deviation from the normal rainfall was far more pronounced.
On July 25, it was large deficient, followed by excess rainfall on subsequent day, but again from July 27 to 30 it was large deficient and on July 31 it was deficient rainfall and again from August 1 to 5, it was largely deficient.
On August 6, it was deficient rainfall and on the subsequent day, it was largely deficient and again it was deficient on August 8. Such a situation was observed in the second week of June.
80 per cent sowing over
By August 4, sowing was completed in 17.12 lakh hectares as against the normal area of 21.52 lakh ha, that is 80%. In all, 77 per cent of the normal area was covered by coarse grains (paddy, Jowar, Bajra, Maize, Ragi etc), 58% ofnormal area was covered by pulses (red gram, greengram, black gram etc) and 76 per cent of the normal area was covered by oil seeds (Ground nut, Sesamum, Castor, Sunflower etc). In case of sugarcane, it was 39 per cent, cotton - 86 per cent and onion - 98 per cent.
Light rains likely in next three days
Scattered rainfall occurred at a few places across the state with heavy rainfall in a couple of places in East
Godavari till Sunday morning. In the last 12 hours till 9 pm, Nuzvid in Krishna received the highest rainfall of 8.4 cm. IMD predicts light to moderate rains at a few places in the state in the next three days