Andhra Pradesh: Parched Kurnool, Anantapur crave for attention
ANANTAPUR/KURNOOL: Heavy rains due to cyclone Michaung lashed several parts of Andhra Pradesh, erstwhile Kurnool and Anantapur districts, now sub-divided into four, continue to face the consequences of persistent droughts with the monsoon turning its back on them.
Nearly 30 per cent of deficit rains were registered in Anantapur. Kurnool did not fare well as water scarcity hit the crops in more than two lakh hectares. Now all the hopes of farmers of this Rayalaseema district are on the input subsidy and crop insurance.
According to data available from officials, Anantapur received only 1.1 mm on average in the first 10 days of December. Meanwhile, Atmakur mandal received 8.6 mm, Tadipatri received 6.5 mm, Peddapappur 6.5 mm and Yellanuru received 4.9 mm. No other Mandals have received any rain.
In Sri Satya Sai district, an average rainfall of 4.7 mm was recorded for the period and the highest rainfall of 47.5 mm was reported on December 5 in Nambula Pulakunta mandal the very next day it was 6 mm and no further rain. Talupura Mandal received 18.77 mm, and Gandlapetna received 18.1 mm. Except for these three Mandals, the rain was absent in the rest of the district.
Anantapur district received 288.7 mm of rain as against the normal rainfall of 453 mm from June 1 onwards resulting in a 36.2 per cent deficit. As many as 24 mandals out of the total 31 mandals in the district are facing deficit rains. In Sri Satya Sai district, against 521.5 mm rainfall, only 360.7 mm of rain was received from June 1, resulting in a 30 per cent deficit, throwing 25 out of 31 Mandals into the deficit rainfall list.
According to agriculture department officials, the normal extent of cultivation in undivided Anantapur is 16.15 lakh acres, but cultivation was done in 8.82 lakh acres only during Kharif. As against the normal extent of 3.04 lakh acres, of which 1.93 lakh is cultivated under Bengal gram, and at present, the crop is cultivated in only 16,600 acres. In Sri Satya Sai district, groundnut is cultivated in 69,000 acres during Rabi, but only 43,000 acres of land has been cultivated so far.
Meanwhile, several projects in both the districts are short of water while fodder has become scarce. Officials said both the districts have a shortfall of 3,843 metric tonnes of fodder. The situation in neighbouring Kurnool and Nandyal districts is no different. Out of 3.02 lakh hectares, 2.38 lakh hectares of crops either withered or damaged during Kharif.
As per official data, as against 401.2 mm rain, Kurnool district received only 219.10 mm during the west monsoon. Given the scanty rainfall in the district, the government declared 24 out of 26 Mandals in the district as drought-hit.
Speaking to TNIE, the agriculture department joint director for Kurnool PL Varalakshmi said that the crop damage due to drought in the district affected a total of 2,38,231.42 hectares. She said plans have been prepared to disburse a compensation of Rs 368.36 crore to 2,90,741 farmers impacted by the drought.
Cap set to disburse aid to farmers
To manage the distribution of compensation to drought-hit farmers, a cap has been set, limiting the crop loss compensation to a maximum of 2 hectares for each farmer across the 24 drought-affected mandals in Kurnool. The enumeration of crop losses was meticulously conducted at the field level by a joint team comprising officials from the agriculture and revenue departments