The overnight rains in the Anantapur district have filled, according to the officials, tens of thousands of farm ponds besides many a tank, bringing hope of a better harvest at least in a few areas.
The district as a whole received 48.5 mm rainfall in September as against the normal 20.3 mm, thus registering ‘excess’ for the first time this rainy season, even if it be for just a small period. The recent rains have also dragged the district out of the deficit bracket into ‘normal’ with the small negative deviation of around 2% for the ongoing rainy season following 235.5 mm of rainfall as against the normal 240.3 mm. Women and Child Welfare Minister and Raptadu TDP MLA Paritala Sunita said over 29,000 farm ponds dug under the Panta Sanjeevani programme of the State government were filled with around 1.05 TMC of water prompting the villagers who had migrated to come back and take up agriculture. Sixteen mandals including D. Hirehal, Bommanahalli, Vidapanakal, Vajrakarur, Kudair, Uravakonda and Kalyanadurgam registered good rain over the last two days pushing them into the ‘excess’ bracket.
On the other hand 19 mandals including Gooty, Yadiki, Rayadurgam, Gummagatta, Settur, Anantapur, Yellanuru, Raptadu, Kanaganapalle, Nambulapula Kunta, Gorantla, Puttaparthy, Roddam remain deficient with hopes hinged on a few more days of rainfall forecast to help them.
However, 27 mandals have reached normalcy helping the expectations of a better harvest as groundnut crops across the district are withering away.
It remains to be seen, if the official machinery can actually make use of the water in the farm ponds to provide protective wettings or remain helpless in the face of seepage and evaporation, as was the case last year.