The Sudden rains in Medak district in the past couple of days have rekindled hopes of some recovery among farmers who feared heavy losses due to drought-like conditions prevailing for the last one month. Farmers in Zaheerabad who mostly cultivated dry crops this kharif season, have breathed a sigh of relief after the crops which had almost dried up, were saved after the recent showers.
“The crops had almost dried-up, but after rains on Monday, we were happy to see a lot of recovery in the crop health when we woke up on Tuesday,” said Mallaiah, a farmer from Jharasangam mandal. “Maybe 50 per cent of loss was mitigated after whatever little rainfall we had,” said Venkanna, a farmer from Narayankhed.
Manjira River enters Medak district from Narayankhed. Apart from rainfall water flowing into the streams, no other major inflows have come from barrages upstream in Karnataka and Maharashtra. Nakkavagu, a medium irrigation project has received a little water though.
Farmers who delayed sowing, or those who sowed for the second time, are the ones who may recover their investments, if not losses. Farmers in Dubbak, Mirdoddi, Siddipet and other mandals in Siddipet division had lost all hopes on their crops until two days ago, when it started raining. Though the rainfall has been deficient according to reports, farmers say some of the losses could come down.
The worst hit among all areas is the new Medak district which will be formed after districts’ reorganisation. Kishan, an organic farmer from Ramayampet said that almost 90 per cent of maize crop was already damaged in the mandal and that it was no different in neighbouring mandals. “Farmers have reduced paddy cultivation and even from the little amount of paddy sown, they will have to bear severe losses,” he said.
Almost all mandals in the new Medak constituency had deficient rainfall in August with continued dry spells everywhere. Some areas which received rainfall were Sangareddy and mandals around it - Nangunur, Gajwel, Jagdevpur, Alladurg, Manoor and a few more places. In short, it is good news for maize and cotton crop farmers as their losses may come down and for those farmers who delayed sowing.
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BY M. DIVYA SRI
