5 months ago
86
hyderabad
The farming community, which too was engaged in the process of elections to the State Assembly to some extent or the other till the last week, is getting back to work to intensify the cultivation of Rabi crops along with pacing up harvesting paddy and a few other crops raised in the Kharif season.
With availability of water sufficient for the second (Rabi) crop in the irrigation systems in Godavari Basin and healthy groundwater table in many parts of the State, in spite of unevenly spread monsoon rains, the only worry farmers have is lack of required quantity of water in the projects in Krishna Basin due to deficient inflows/flood from the upstream this water year.
“Rise in the consumption of energy beyond 200 million units (MU) a day and the intra-day peak demand of power on the transmission system clocking beyond 10,000 megawatt (MW) since December 11, after a gap of over a month, is a clear indication of sowing/transplantation of crops picking up momentum this season as a lion’s share (category-wise) of energy is consumed by the agriculture and allied (irrigation) sectors,” a senior official of the Telangana transmission utility explained.
According to the Agriculture Department officials, cultivation of Rabi crops has crossed 8 lakh acres already this year as against 7.7 lakh acres by December 14 last year. Sowing of Bengal gram in over 2.23 lakh acres, maize in nearly 2.03 lakh acres, groundnut in over 1.68 lakh acres, paddy in about 0.8 lakh acres, jowar in 0.35 lakh acres, black gram in nearly 0.24 lakh acres comprise the extent covered so far.
Cultivation of Rabi crops, other than paddy, is mainly driven by Adilabad, Kumram Bheem-Asifabad, Nirmal, Nagarkurnool, Vikarabad and Kamareddy districts, where Bengal gram, maize, groundnut and jowar crops are widely grown this season, the agriculture officials stated. Cultivation of Rabi crops in the six districts so far ranges from 31.5% to 56.2% of the normal extent for the season.
During the last (2022-23) Rabi season, crops were raised in a record extent of over 72.63 lakh acres with paddy transplanted in nearly 56.45 lakh acres, maize in over 6.48 lakh acres, Bengal gram in over 3.64 lakh acres and groundnut in nearly 2.43 lakh acres.
What Rabi season holds for farmers this year
Average groundwater table in November stood at 1.74 metres less compared to last year
Groundwater is available at an average of 6.24 metres below ground level in November against 4.5 metres in Nov. 2022
Groundwater table has depleted by 0.52 metres during Oct.-Nov.
Combined storage of water in Tungabhadra, Jurala, Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar projects, from which Telangana gets water for irrigation and drinking needs, is at 230.79 tmc ft on December 14
On the same day last year, the storage was 512.19 tmc ft
In Godavari Basin, storage of water is 182.97 tmc ft. as on December 14
Last year, the storage of Singur, Nizamsagar, Sriramsagar, MMD, LMD, Kaddam and Yellampally was 210.41 tmc ft. on the same day
