HYDERABAD (NNN-Bernama) -- Deficient rainfall and severe drought have adversely affected agricultural activities across south Indian state Andhra Pradesh, one of India's leading rice cultivation zones.
Rice cultivation has been taken up in only 940,000 hectares this season, known as Kharif cultivation in Indian parlance, compared to the usual 2,648,000 hectares.
This has resulted in fears of a fall in rice output from the state, Press Trust of India reported.
Rain deficit has ranged between 3 to 31 per cent in 13 out of 23 districts in the state since the start of the Kharif season on June 1, official sources said.
The perennially drought-hit Anantapur district recorded a 31 per cent deficit rainfall followed by Nizamabad at 24 per cent and Nalgonda and Visakhapatnam with 21 per cent each.
Kurnool district received three per cent less than usual rain this season.
On Wednesday, State Revenue Minister N Raghuveera Reddy, Agriculture Minister Kanna Lakshminarayana and Municipal Administration Minister M Maheedhar Reddy reviewed the situation with district collectors via a video conference from Hyderabad.
They had asked the agriculture department to prepare farmers to take up irrigated dry crops as an alternative. --NNN- BERNAMA
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