Rains inundate standing crops

The ongoing spell of rains for the last 10 days, heavy to very heavy rains in many areas for the last couple of days in particular, have inundated standing crops in large areas in over half of the Sta

The ongoing spell of rains for the last 10 days, heavy to very heavy rains in many areas for the last couple of days in particular, have inundated standing crops in large areas in over half of the State. According to the information reaching here, the impact is high in erstwhile Karimnagar, Adilabad, Warangal and Khammam districts which are now reorganised into 18 districts as also in parts of the remaining districts. Kharif crops have been raised in about 82.5 lakh acres so far this season with most of the crops in the vegetative stage and paddy in nursery and transplantation stage. Scientists of the Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU) have advised the farming community to drain out the flood water from cotton, maize, redgram and soybean crop fields, if possible, to limit the damage as more rain is forecast over the next few days. When contacted, officials of the Agriculture Department stated that they are yet to enumerate the extent of crops inundated due to rains but admitted that the extent was high. Of the crops raised so far, cotton is taken up in over 48.77 lakh acres followed by paddy in 13.75 lakh acres, redgram in 8.34 lakh acres, maize in 5.18 lakh acres, soybean in 3.39 lakh acres and greengram in 1.21 lakh acres.