Incessant rain in Anantapur and Sri Sathya Sai districts has caused some temporary inconvenience for the travelling public at a few places besides damaging a couple of houses and a poultry shed in Narpala mandal of Anantapur district, but the four days of downpour is going to be beneficial for groundnut farmers.
Anantapur district recorded 121% excess rainfall in August (161.7 mm against a normal of 72.9 mm), while Sri Sathya Sai district recorded 176.7% excess rainfall (233 mm against a normal of 84.2 mm) during that time. However, the neighbouring Kurnool and Nandyal districts recorded -8% (107.1 mm against 116 mm) and -20% (122.3 mm against 152.29 mm of normal) rainfall respectively going by the figures provided by the Revenue Department.
So far in this monsoon season for the water year 2022-23, Anantapur recorded an excess rainfall of 54%, Kurnool district a deficit of -22%, Nandyal district a deficit of -20% and Sri Sathya Sai district an excess of 81.1%.
The Agriculture Research Centre, Rekulakunta, agrometeorologist K. Ashok Kumar told The Hindu that the rain in the first four days of August and from August 24 to 28 would prove beneficial for the groundnut and red gram farmers who had sown in late July.
“Groundnut will be in the flowering and pod formation stage now and the current spell of rain that is likely to continue till Tuesday will be beneficial. There was no rain in early July and the majority of the farmers had sown groundnut late in that month. Castor farmers may face some problems as it is the time spike formation begins in the plants sown in June, but some ordinary fungicides will help overcome the Boritis that may set in,” Mr. Kumar said.
For Anantapur farmers, rain in September is crucial. The lack of rains in August and September in 2021 resulted in a big loss for the groundnut farmers and reduction of crop area this season.
