Medak District, Andhra Pradesh:
The southwest monsoon has got delayed by over two weeks now and with that the hopes of farmers for a good agricultural season are drying up. The worry is that agricultural productivity of not just food crops like rice and maize, but also oilseeds like groundnut and cash crops like cotton are going to be hit. What's more, the delayed rains could badly affect the rabi crop as well.
Lakshmi is worried that even the one acre on which she is planting paddy saplings may dry up. That's because there are no rains yet.
"There are no rains, no water in the 3-4 bore wells that we dug. Only if it rains, the crops will grow and farmers like us can survive. We pledged our jewellery, borrowed money for the new crop. But I am scared even this may dry up. I have to spend 100 rupees a day on labour alone. We are supposed to be big farmers. What should we do?'' says Lakshmi.
Patches like this where paddy is being sown are few and far between.
In the Krishna delta for example, where rice is grown on upto 13 lakh hectares, the delay in monsoon is going to cause fall in foodgrain production by upto 40,000 tonnes. It will impact not just the agricultural economy this season but also the next crop, the rabi, when mainly pulses are grown.
In the Telangana region, where cotton is a major rain fed crop, Yadagiri, a cotton farmer, is waiting to plant on four acres the cotton seeds that he has bought on loan. He had planned to plant maize on three acres. That's traditionally done by June 8, the Mrigasira Kartika day, when the monsoon arrives but that has not happened.
"If there are rains, by Dasara, we plant chana. If there are no rains on time, there will be virtually no crop this year,'' says Yadagiri.
Andhra Pradesh is one of the major producers of kharif crops like paddy, cotton, maize and oilseeds like groundnut, all of which may take a hit this year.