Rabi crop sown in 21.66 lakh hectares in Andhra Pradesh is under the threat of drying up for want of water, resulting in poor yields if the findings of the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) are any indication.
The NRSC monitors the Normalised Difference Water Index (NDWI) and publishes its findings every fortnight.
The State recorded a rainfall deficit of 33% last season (southwest, northeast monsoons, winter and the beginning of the hot season from March 1). The recent isolated rain notwithstanding, the State remains mostly arid.
Drought causes crop failure or lower production. The NDWI, a satellite-derived index, is known to be strongly related to the plant water content and is, therefore, a very good indicator of plant water stress.
The NDWI for 608 mandals in the State is either precarious or alarming. The NSRC, however, uses the terms ‘watch’ for precarious and ‘alert’ for alarming. According to the latest NSRC findings, the NDWI in 119 mandals is alarming and in another 489 is precarious. The crop is not under stress only in 53 mandals.
According to the NSRC observations, crop in all the mandals of Anantapur is under stress. While the situation is alarming in 51 mandals, it needs monitoring in 12 mandals. For that matter, the crop in all the four Rayalaseema districts is under stress. In Kurnool, the crop stress is alarming in 22 mandals and needs to be watched in 31 mandals, in Kadapa 12 mandals are under the alarming category and 39 mandals need to be watched, in Chittoor the situation is alarming in 17 mandals and in 49 others it needs to be watched.
Four coastal districts have the distinction of not having mandals in which the crop is not under water stress. They are Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam and Prakasam. The district with a few mandals where crops are not suffering from water stress are East Godavari (18 out of 60 mandals), West Godavari (20 out of 46), Krishna (10 out of 50), Guntur (3 out of 57) and Nellore (2 out of 45). Paddy has been sown in 6.31 lakh hectares this rabi season and will be harvested in the middle of May.
Sowing delayed
Because of the huge rainfall deficit, the sowing of all the other crops has been delayed this year.
According to the National Food Security Mission Crop Calendar, except for paddy all other crops are sown and harvested in Andhra Pradesh before March-end.
This year, however, the sowing of crops like wheat, bajra, maize, green gram, blackgram, horsegram, groundnut, sunflower, chilli and onion have been delayed, according to sources in the Agriculture Department .