Two days of rains in the district has brought great relief to the farming community with rainfall deficit coming down from -47% on Saturday to -35.3% on Tuesday.
The cumulative rainfall received so far this season rose to 180.4 mm by 6 p.m. on Tuesday aided by low pressure area in the Bay of Bengal. Agrometeorologist S. Malleswari Sadhineni said if another 100 mm rain is received by this month-end, it would turn normal.
Two days of rains brought water into all small tanks and even the largest tank close to Anantapur city began filling by evening. This was beneficial for the farmers who had sown groundnut and other contingency crops during the August 17 to 21 rainfall as pegging and pod formation stage was nearing, Ms. Malleswari added. There was a forecast of up to 20 mm rainfall in the district for the next two days and another low pressure system was likely to form in the Bay, which might bring more rains.
This rain gave life to all kharif crops and groundnut in more than 3.5 lakh hectares will now take advantage of this situation as rains have come at the most critical time, said Joint Director (Agriculture) Habib Basha.
Horsegram, cowpea, jowar, korra, greengram, bajra, ragi etc. have been sown in more than 70,000 hectares and this serves as right beginning for rabi sowings, said Mr. Basha. Ms. Malleswari recommends sowing by third week of September if another spell of good rain is received.
Anantapur district with a record number of borewells (2.64) lakh, now has reported 1.68 lakh functional and farmers expect this number to go up further, which have sufficient discharge to save horticulture and ID crops in more than 1.4 lakh hectares.