Andhra Pradesh - Tirupati   

It is drought again in Chittoor district

Special Correspondent

Kharif crops under a cloud

TIRUPATI: After an unusual respite last year from seven years of recurring drought, it is drought again in the semi-arid Chittoor district, with the monsoon playing truant. Against a normal rainfall of 102 mm in July, the district is said to have recorded barely 10 mm, that too only in certain pockets, leaving huge chunks rainless. Water level in the irrigation tanks has already depleted while borewells are showing signs of touching rock-bottom.

Reports said that against an average of 2.37 hectares of crops normally cultivated during the kharif season in the rain shadow Chittoor district, hardly 91,000 hectares were brought under plough this year. In fact the ryots, buoyed by an impressive monsoon in early June -- 96.5 mm against the normal 79 mm -- had started the kharif operations in right earnest, especially the groundnut crops. But, with there being no rains subsequently -- after June 20 to be precise -- 1.05 lakh hectares of land kept ready by the district farmers for groundnut crops were left fallow.

Instilling confidence

Though the weathermen and the agricultural department are trying to instil some confidence into the demoralised farmers that there is still time till the month end for the monsoon to set in, the farmers in the district are sitting with their fingers crossed. Meanwhile, the newly elected ZPP at its inaugural meeting on Monday discussed the fallout of the drought in the district and decided to seek the Chief Minister's intervention to take up cloud seeding on a large scale in the district to save the farmers.

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