Due to heavy rains and winds, Andhra Pradesh suffered huge damages to several agriculture crops as a total of 3,16,553 acres of fields were inundated in October and November.
Based on a preliminary report from agriculture department, the farmers sowed several varieties of crops in 87,72,939 acres during kharif season and in 5,75,132 acres during rabi season up to November 10 and out of the total sown area, crops suffered inundation in 3.16 lakh acres spread all over the state.
Crops like paddy, Bengal gram, cotton, black gram, groundnut, sugar, sunflower and others suffered damages in 1,570 villages in 175 mandals in all 13 districts. Bengal gram suffered damage in 1,57,428 acres followed by paddy in 1,50,839 acres, cotton in 4,883 acres and other crops in 1,433 acres area. Paddy nurseries raised in rabi season also suffered damages in hundreds of acres of area.
The report mentioned that paddy was being raised in 1.43 lakh acres and was in harvesting stage in East Godavari, West Godavari, Krishna and Nellore districts and it was inundated and submerged resulting in discolouration of grain and also spouted.
Bengal gram being raised in 1.5 lakh acres in parts of Kadapa, Anantapur and Prakasam districts was damaged due to rains. Cotton being raised in 4,883 acres in Kadapa district is in second and third picking stage and due to rain, it got discoloured and yield will be reduced due to stagnation of water in the field. Black gram raised in August was in the harvesting stage when it was damaged in Krishna district while pulse crops also suffered damages while breaking of pulse pods.
With regard to rainfall from October 1 to November 12, Chittoor and Anantapur recorded excess rainfall while Nellore and Kadapa reported normal rainfall and Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, East Godavari, West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam and Kurnool reported deficit rainfall. However, AP received 189.9 mm actual rainfall against normal rainfall of 226.6 mm showing deviation of 16.2 per cent with rainfall status as normal.
Following the latest ‘Mini Cyclone’ that bore down on northern Tamil Nadu and southern AP with extremely heavy downpour this week, the Bay of Bengal has now set to hit the same region with its successor next week around November 18. With this, farmers are further worried about the damages to fields.
