A three-member central government team visited Kurnool district on Wednesday to assess the drought situation. The team went through Pathikonda, Aspari, Adoni, Aluru, Devanakonda, and Kodumur mandals.

The central team observed the conditions of tomato, chilli and cotton crops affected in several villages across these mandals.

The team consisted of Anuradha Batana, senior research officer at Niti Aayog, R Santosh, assistant adviser from the department of drinking water and sanitation under the Jal Shakti ministry, and Sangeet Kumar, under secretary from the food and public distribution department. They were accompanied by district officials during their visit.

The team found extensive crop damage in the area. In Chinnahulti village of Pathikonda mandal, cotton crops were damaged; in Juturu village, cotton and turmeric suffered damage; in Billekallu of Aspari mandal and Virupapuram village of Adoni mandal, tomato, cotton and castor oil crops were damaged. In Kappatralla in Devanakonda mandal, castor oil crops suffered damage. In Pyalakurthi in Kodumuru mandal, cotton, redgram and castor oil crops were damaged.

The team interacted with farmers to understand their problems.

In Kurnool district, only Kurnool Rural and Tuggali mandals have not been declared as drought-affected. The farmers requested the team that these areas too be declared as drought-hit mandals.

Adoni sub collector Abhishek Kumar, CPO Himaprabhakar Raju, irrigation SE Reddy Sekhar, Kurnool RDO Hariprasad, Pathikonda RDO Ramalakshmi, APMIP PD Umadevi and others participated in the assessment.

Following their field visits, the team viewed a photo exhibition at the collectorate and met joint collector Narapureddy Maurya. They discussed drought prevention steps and encouraged the cultivation of millet crops in the district.

The joint collector said there was significant crop damage due to weather conditions, with 24 mandals declared as drought-affected. Proposals have been sent to declare the remaining two mandals as drought affected as well.

She informed the team that 290,741 farmers in 24 mandals faced crop damage over 2,38,230.92 hectares. Proposals for grant of Rs 371 crore under SDRF and Rs 205.78 crore under NDRF have been sent to the central government.

Regarding horticulture, the joint collector said crops of 57,365 farmers were damaged over 36,855.33 hectares in 22 mandals, resulting in losses of Rs 62.65 crore.

Source - https://www.deccanchronicle.com