HYDERABAD: The hopes of farmers, who have been expecting good rainfall this kharif, have beend dashed again thanks to strong El Nino effect. Consequently, the sowing area in the State has dipped drastically to 26.97 lakh hectares against the season normal of 29.12 lakh hectares.
However, it is marginally better than the last kharif season when sowing area around this time was at 26.06 lakh hectares.
According to estimates of the Agriculture Commissionerate, released on Wednesday, the total area sown in all last three years are as follows: 33.53 lakh ha in 2013, 26.06 lakh ha in 2014 and 26.97 lakh ha until July 29.
The area under paddy cultivation came down from 3.89 lakh ha in 2013 to 2.31 lakh ha in 2014 to 1.19 lakh in 2015 until July 29. Similar is the case with jowar and maize.
However, red gram, green gram, black gram bucked the trend registering more cropping area under cultivation, compared to previous kharif season. The area under groundnut cultivation too has gone up this time, compared to previous year, but is not higher than the 2013 figures.
Although the pre-monsoon showers raised hopes of farmers across the State, with good amount of rainfall in the beginning of June, what has followed is mainly dry weather.
However, isolated rains were received in July without any let up in dry weather conditions, the report states.
Accordingly, deficit rainfall was recorded in Nizamabad, Medak, Karimnagar, Rangareddy, Hyderabad, Mahbubnagar. Both Nalgonda and Adilabad received normal rainfall. Interestingly, Khammam and Warangal districts recorded excess rainfall.