At a time when many of the central coastal and north coastal districts experienced heavy rainfall leading to inundation of crops, severe deficit rainfall in Anantapur during August and September led to the failure of groundnut crop in thousands of acres, which the State government is yet to assess.

As per the rainfall data provided by the district administration, against a normal 118.4 mm expected rainfall for September only 45.8 mm was received till September 30 registering a -61.3% deficit. During August this year against a normal rain of 88.7 mm only 71.5 mm was received recording a -19.4 deficit. For the entire kharif season from June 1 till September 30, against a normal of 338.4 mm the district received 344.4 mm registering 1.8% excess, but a large gap of close to 50 days between two wet spells led to all the damage, according to farmers. During September last year (2020), there was 100% excess rainfall and for the same period, there was 67% excess rainfall.

Ironically, till Thursday, the e-crop booking process has not been completed in the district to come to an assessment as to how many acres of groundnut was actually sown. Only 30% of the area has been verified to ascertain if the crop was really sown by the farmer who had done e-crop booking.

The 90-day-old crop of Thimappa at Gangalakunta in Rapthadu mandal in the district had good growth till last month, but when it was time for pod formation it did not rain leading to the withering of the crop and insufficient development of seeds in the pod.

A visit by Rashtra News to the 5-acre farm of Thimappa, whose two sons have been taking care of the agricultural activities, has revealed that there was no source of water nearby and no rain for more than 52 days.

‘No response from govt.’

Mr. Thimappa along with a couple of farmers represented to the State government through the Agriculture Department, but has not received any help yet. He invested more than ₹1.4 lakh on the farm and does not expect any return but for the ₹13,500 Rythu Bharosa amount given by the State government.

A contrasting scenario was witnessed in the Kadiri region, which received excess rainfall and flooding in July and August/September leading to severe damage to the groundnut crop in three to four mandals.