Unabated rain in the drought-prone district of Prakasam in the first fortnight of August has ended its dry spell and made good the district’s rainfall deficit.
Under the influence of a weather system in the Bay of Bengal, the district experienced widespread rainfall in the last 7 days. With this, the district received 103.7 mm rainfall in August as against the normal rainfall of 107 mm helping farmers to sow crops in more than 1.14 lakh hectares.
The wet spell in Ongole, which saw heavy downpour on Tuesday morning, will continue in the next 48 hours as well, according to weather officials.
Crop coverage
The crop coverage was 106% as on date with the district receiving 276.7 mm rainfall since the outbreak of southwest monsoon in June as against the normal rainfall of 254.7 mm for the three-month period, said Agriculture Joint Director(FAC) K.Annapurna. The district had 34 rainy days since June, including 15 in August.
“The farmers in the district will not have any problem taking up kharif cultivation in the normal sown area of 2.12 lakh hectares this year,” she said.
Red gram cultivation had been taken up in over 51,000 hectares as against the season's normal of about 90,000 hectares followed by cotton in 22,833 hectares( season’s normal 33,037 hectares) and chillies in 18,370 hectares(season’s normal 27,152 hectares. Paddy had been sown in 6596 hectares (season’s normal 26223 hectares). The district receives Krishna water from Nagarjunasagar Right Bank Canal and also from Prakasam Barrage under Krishna western delta.
Vetapalem received a maximum rainfall of 31.2 mm in the 24 hours ending 9 a.m. on Tuesday followed by Pulalacheruvu(16.8 mm), Chirala (11.8 mm), Kruchedu(11 mm), Chinnaganjam (10.8 mm) and Santamagaluru(9.8 mm), according to a report compiled the District Chief Planning Officer.
