With good rainfall towards July end, AP positive about Kharif

The state had witnessed deficit rainfall in June with only 83.5 mm of rains being recorded against a normal rainfall of 108.4 mm for the month, a deviation of -23 per cent.

However, the state received 202.9 mm rainfall in July against a normal rainfall of 188.0 mm.

"Moderate to rather heavy rainfall recorded across the state from July 14 to 18 has regenerated farmers' hopes about Kharif prospects which were muted in the wake of a 10-day-long dry spell. The great change has come about as the rainfall deficit has come down from 24 per cent on July 4 to three per cent on August 1, 2012," officials said.

Only Visakhapatnam, Anantapur, Nizamabad and Nalgonda recorded deficit rainfall among the total 23 districts in the state during the period from June one to August one.

So far, the total area sown in the state is 48.24 lakh hectares (60 per cent) as against the normal area of 80.29 lakh hectares and normal as on date area of 53.67 lakh hectares.

Talking to PTI, state Agriculture Commissioner Madhusudhan Rao expressed hope that the Kharif-2012 would be good.

As per the provisional figures on crop sowings, paddy, the major crop in Andhra Pradesh, has been sown in 6.09 lakh hectares as on August 1, against the 'as on date' normal area of 8.79 lakh hectares and season's normal area of 26.48 lakh hectares.

The total area of food grains sown is 17.27 lakh hectares as on August 1 against the as-on-date figure of 21.37 lakh hectares and the season's normal area is 42.05 lakh hectares. (More)