With hardly 10 days of the right time left for sowing of major Vanakalam (Kharif) crops in Telangana, reaching the planned extent of crops such as cotton, maize, soybean, redgram, greengram and blackgram appears to be getting increasingly difficult as the State suffers an average rainfall deficit of 35% as on July 9.
The rainfall deficit in the sowing/transplantation period has also pulled up the demand for energy from the agriculture sector and in the first eight days of July, the consumption was recorded at 1,730.77 million units against 1,346.01 MU last year. In June, the consumption was 6,074.78 MU this year as against the previous highest of 5,310.32 MU in June last year.
“Hopes of the Agriculture Department to reach even a reduced cultivation extent of 130 lakh acres for the Kharif season largely depend on paddy transplantation now, as reaching the 50 lakh acres extent for cotton looks almost impossible as it has been sown only in about 26 lakh acres so far – as on July 8,” a senior official said, throwing light on the possible scenario. Last year, the Kharif crops were cultivated in about 136.04 lakh acres.
