Adilabad: Cotton and soya farmers in Adilabad district are worried about standing crops, particularly soya, drying up due to scanty rainfall.
Farmers are using sprinklers and drip irrigation to save the crops.
Farmers said cotton could survive with sporadic rainfall, but other crops required good rains for a few days.
They said the prolonged dry spell could also lead to drinking water scarcity.
Farmers cultivated cotton in 4.30 lakh acres, soya in 56,000 acres, red gram in 42,000 acres and maize in 21,000 acres during the Kharif season in Adilabad district.
The area under cotton cultivation increased slightly in the hope of getting a good price for the crop.
The soya plants have grown, but the seeds have not developed fully due to the lack of timely rainfall.
Farmers said changes in the rainfall pattern were affecting crops and expressed concern over the impact on the cotton crop if the dry spell continued.
Adilabad district has recorded a rainfall deficit of 31 per cent, receiving 679.7 mm against the normal 984.4 mm from June 1 so far.
Nirmal, Mancherial and Komaram Bheem Asifabad districts received normal rainfall.
Farmer Sanjeev Reddy of Pochera village said the soya crop had been affected by scanty rainfall. He said one end of his agricultural field received rain while the other did not.
He said the El Nino effect was visible on the standing crops but that he could not predict its impact on the yield at present.
People in Adilabad have also been experiencing sultry and humid weather conditions and high temperatures over the past few days.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
