Hyderabad:
With rainfall improving significantly since the second half of July, Andhra Pradesh officials are hopeful that a drought-like situation would not prevail in the state this year and are expecting a good Kharif crop.
The state had witnessed deficit rainfall in June with only 83.5 mm of rains being recorded against a normal rainfall of 108.4 mm for the month, a deviation of -23 per cent.
However, the state received 202.9 mm rainfall in July against a normal rainfall of 188.0 mm.
"Moderate to rather heavy rainfall recorded across the state from July 14 to 18 has regenerated farmers' hopes about Kharif prospects which were muted in the wake of a 10-day-long dry spell. The great change has come about as the rainfall deficit has come down from 24 per cent on July 4 to three per cent on August 1, 2012," officials said.
Only Visakhapatnam, Anantapur, Nizamabad and Nalgonda recorded deficit rainfall among the total 23 districts in the state during the period from June one to August one.
So far, the total area sown in the state is 48.24 lakh hectares (60 per cent) as against the normal area of 80.29 lakh hectares and normal as on date area of 53.67 lakh hectares.
Talking to PTI, state Agriculture Commissioner Madhusudhan Rao expressed hope that the Kharif-2012 would be good.
As per the provisional figures on crop sowings, paddy, the major crop in Andhra Pradesh, has been sown in 6.09 lakh hectares as on August 1, against the 'as on date' normal area of 8.79 lakh hectares and season's normal area of 26.48 lakh hectares.
The total area of food grains sown is 17.27 lakh hectares as on August 1 against the as-on-date figure of 21.37 lakh hectares and the season's normal area is 42.05 lakh hectares.
The total area of oilseeds sown is 10.31 lakh hectares till yesterday against the as-on-date figure of 15.70 lakh hectares and season's normal area is 17.62 lakh hectares.
The total area used for sowing of crops is 48.24 lakh hectares, against the 'as on date' normal area of 53.67 lakh hectares and the seasons normal area is 80.29 lakh hectares.
Thanks to the recent rains, senior officials noted that the agriculture operations are going on at a brisk pace raising hopes of a good kharif crop.
"Raising of paddy nurseries was completed in about 80 per cent under Krishna delta (districts) and nearing completion in Godavari delta (districts). With the help of recent rains, the transplantation of paddy is in progress in all parts of the districts under bore wells, canals. The sowing of rain-fed crops is in progress," the officials said.
"Where moisture existed in the soil like maize, cotton, groundnut, bajra, jowar, due to receipt of good rainfall during the week ending on August one, already sown crops suffering from moisture stress due to dry spell have recovered and allowed the farmers to take up sowing, transplantation operations at a brisk pace, they said.
"With the receipt of recent rains during the week period (ending August one), the sowing under rain-fed as well as irrigated conditions is picking up. Subsequent monsoon rains in the state accelerated the sowings/ transplanting rice, oilseeds and cotton sowings are at its peak. Early sown rain-fed crops are at early vegetative stage. Sugarcane is at cane development stage. However, the farmers are advised to continue sowing of groundnut crop till August 15," they added.