After ruining Kharif, dry spell impacting Rabi

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KARIMNAGAR: The dry spell that impacted the recent Kharif season is also showing its impact on the current Rabi crops in the distr..

KARIMNAGAR: The dry spell that impacted the recent Kharif season is also showing its impact on the current Rabi crops in the district. According to official reports, crops were damaged in about 88,000 hectares in 33 mandals. After a long time a droughtlike situation has returned to the district. Several farmers suffered due to lack of water and deficit rainfall in the rainy season. After sowing paddy and cotton crops, they were crestfallen. At some places, farmers burnt their crops which withered. Nearly seven villages declared crop holiday due to various reasons. The government declared 55 mandals as droughtaffected out of 57.
In the Kharif season cultivation was taken up in 5.05 lakh hectares, cotton being the major crop which was raised in about 2.30 lakh hectares. Of that, 40 percent crop withered due to the dry spell. Paddy harvesting was taken up in about 1.70 lakh hectares and officials estimate a yield of 8 lakh tonnes.Karimnagar district has had a 31.75 per cent deficit rainfall recently. The district, which normally receives a rain of 884 mm between April and October, has received only 603 mm. Though the Sri Ram Sagar Project (SRSP) canal flows in the district, tailend farmers have no sufficient water to irrigate their fields.

With the effect of dry spell, the present Rabi crop coverage area has come down in the district compared to last year's Rabi season. According to agriculture authorities, in the 201011 Rabi season crops were raised in about 2,95,260 hectares area and in 201112 in about 2,57,289 hectares. While areas under paddy, groundnut, Bengal gram and other crops are almost normal, area under maize has gone up by 2,000 hectares.