Cotton farmers, who hoped of an early monsoon and acted well in advance in sowing the crop, are now in a tight spot as the rains have been playing truant.
It might be noted that except for some isolated rain activity in Warangal district, Andhra Pradesh, the district has mainly remained dry since the last few weeks. This is causing cotton seedlings to wither in large extent of land and has compelled farmers to feed the crop manually carrying water in buckets.
According to the agriculture officials, cotton is sown in around 60,000 acres across the district. Lured by early monsoon forecast and pre-monsoon rain activity, farmers went against the advice of agriculture officials and sowed the crop.
Going by the fact that nearly 50 per cent of 5.31 lakh hectares of cultivable land in the district are rain fed, farmers now have no option but to wait for rains to feed the crops. Here, the cotton crop would normally be taken up in around 2.4 lakh hectares.
Due to the scanty rainfall this month, the crop has been getting affected mainly in mandals like Narsampet, Mahabubabad, Mulug, Wardhannapet, Geesukonda, Sangem, Devaruppula, Narmetta, Maddur, Narsimhulapet and other districts.
Majority of the area, where the crop is already sown, requires re-sowing and this could lead to shortage of seeds as it would be difficult to procure the seeds urgently.
