Guntur:
With southwest monsoon playing truant and hourlong frequent power cuts, the cotton farmers in the district have incurred heavy loses.
Dry weather condition prevailed through out the cropping season as the rainfall recorded at the rain gauge stations between January and December this year is 47 percent less than that of the previous year, reveals a comparative study made by Gauging Division, Guntur.
The total rainfall recorded up to October 2011 was 591.5 mm which was just half of the rainfall of 1620.2 mm recorded in the corresponding period last year with the difference of 1,028.2 mm, says J Hridaya Ranjan, executive engineer, Gauging Division.
Due to unavailability of irrigation water, cotton in more than 1.25 lakh hectares of the total 1.64 lakh hectares in the district, was badly affected. The average per hectare yield was decreased by 80 per cent in the district and the total crop damage in the district was estimated to be around Rs 3,000 crore, says agriculture joint director V Sridhar.
According to the information, three villages in Vatticharukuru mandal did not receive a single drop of water during monsoon season and the cotton growers of Pulladigunta, Chintapellipadu and Kornepadu villages burnt their crops.
"I never saw such a dry spell in the last 15 years," said K Venkataramana Reddy, a farmer of Chintapellipadu, who suffered a total cro failure in his 3.5 acres. He had invested around Rs 3.3 lakh in the crop.
The state government has declared 41 mandals of the total 57 in the district as droughthit.
"We have resigned to our fate as our yield has been falling prey to the mood of monsoon for the last three years, which either ends in flood or drought," said Racharapu Anjaneyulu, a farmer from Kandrika village of Bollapalli mandal.