This Article is From Jun 23, 2009

Andhra farmers worried over delayed rain

Medak:

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.

Lakshmi is worried that even the one acre on which she is planting paddy saplings may dry up because there are no rains yet.

"There are no rains, no water in the 3-4 borewells 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 Rs 100 a day on labour alone. We are supposed to be big farmers. What should we do?" she said.

Patches where paddy is being sown are few and far between. For example, in the Krishna delta, 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 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 is traditionally done by June 8, the Mrigasira Kartika day, when the monsoon arrives but that has not happened.

"If there are rains, by Dussehra we plant chana. If there are no rains on time, there will be virtually no crop this year," he said.

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.

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