El Nino Impact: Karimnagar Farmers Advised to Choose Low-Water Crops
By jayesh chouhan 2026-07-21 11:49:26
El Nino effect: Advice to farmers in Karimnagar to adopt low water crops except paddy
KARIMNAGAR: Due to weak monsoon and El Nino impact in Telangana's Karimnagar district, the agriculture department has advised farmers to switch to low water intensive crops like paddy in Kharif season. In view of the shortage of water for irrigation, the district administration has implemented a contingency plan, so that the loss of the farmers can be reduced.
District Agriculture Officer J. Bhagyalakshmi said that a serious shortage of irrigation has been revealed in the departmental survey. Farmers have been appealed to sow low water ready crops like groundnut, moong, cowpea and sunflower. According to the Irrigation Department, Lower Manair Dam currently has 5.568 tmcft of water available, while its total capacity is 24.034 tmcft. This water reservoir will be reserved for the next 90 days mainly for drinking water needs.
Despite having around 1.57 lakh acres of agricultural land in Karimnagar, sowing was affected in a large area till July 15 due to shortage of water. District Collector Chitra Mishra has directed officials of the Agriculture and Irrigation Department to promote alternative crops and implement an emergency action plan.
At the same time, the effect of El Nino is clearly visible in Rajanna-Sirsila district. As against the usual 2.45 lakh acres, only 93 thousand acres have been sown so far, affecting about 40 percent of the district's agricultural activities.
