Heavy rains lashed Chittoor district on Friday, bringing much-needed relief to farmers who were badly awaiting the rains following a swing in sowing season.
For the first time in a decade, the district witnessed excess, normal and deficient rainfall in 65 mandals out of 66. Agriculture Department officials termed Friday’s rain of 3,399 mm as “very helpful” for the initial stages of the Khariff sowing season.
The mandals of Gudipala, Somala and Narayanavanam received rainfall in excess of 100 mm, while several mandals both in the eastern and western side received normal rainfall. While the Shantipuram mandal in the west received 94 mm, its adjoining mandal received zero rainfall. The Narayanavanam mandal received the highest rainfall at 106 mm, while Tamballapalle mandal received the lowest rainfall at 5.4mm. As many as 35 mandals received excess rainfall, 21 had normal rain, while ten mandals received deficit rainfall.
Joint Director (Agriculture) N. Vijay Kumar said that Friday’s rain was a welcome development, averting the chances of withering of groundnut fields in several hectares. “In June, Chittoor district stood at -84 mm rainfall. Now, for the month of July, we are in excess of 17% rainfall. With good prospects of rains, we hope the acreage in the district would go up to two lakh hectares by July-end. We have already completed 61% of sowing of groundnut, and sowing for sugarcane and paddy is in progress,” the official said.
Superintending Engineer (Irrigation) Surender Reddy said that Friday’s rain led to minor inflows into several tanks with an area of ten acres each. “Except for minor leakages of sluices in some areas, no breaches of tanks or canals were reported so far. The average rainfall of 51 mm on Friday would be helpful to cattle and growth of fodder,” he said.
