ANANTAPUR: The Government's announcement on Monday that only 24 out of 63 mandals in the district were drought-hit during the 2006-07 agriculture season has attracted widespread criticism in the district from political parties and the farming community. In a district-level review meeting held with officials and elected representatives in the first week of October here, Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy had himself admitted that the district had been witnessing the worst-ever drought conditions in the last three decades due to scanty rainfall.

Deficit rainfall

Besides, the district had recorded about 40 per cent deficit rainfall till October-end, one of the main criteria for declaring an area drought-hit. According to Planning Department statistics, the district had recorded 23.8 per cent surplus rainfall in June, 68.2 per cent deficit in July, 82.7 per cent deficit in August, 27.1 per cent deficit in September and 59.3 per cent deficit in October.

As a result of scanty rainfall in the sowing season, rain-fed cultivation was taken up only in 7.42 lakh hectares, against the normal cropped area of 9.42 lakh ha in kharif season. But, the picture has not been as rosy as it is reflected here when it comes to cultivation of rain-fed groundnut, the main crop in the district.

Poor sowing

Against the normal coverage of 7.74 lakh ha groundnut was sown only in 4.51 lakh ha this season, a shortfall of 58 per cent, according to a report sent by the Agriculture Department to the State Government on August 17. Groundnut sowing generally begins in the last week of June and ends in the second week of August in the district.

Dismal results

In the crop cutting experiments conducted by the Planning Department to ascertain the yield it was found that the production of groundnut was found to be less than 10 kg per acre in about 90 per cent of 6,716 experiments conducted.

State president of AP Rythu Sangham and former legislator of CPI K. Ramakrishna on Tuesday observed that the declaration of drought-hit mandals in the district was unscientific and demanded the Government to declare all the 63 mandals as drought-hit.

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