The monsoon is playing as truant to the farmers in Telangana who are anxiously waiting for the first showers to kick off the kharif season.
A deficit of 56 per cent rainfall was registered by the T State.
In June, it received 46 mm of rainfall as against the normal average of 105 mm. Therefore, sowing activity has not commenced in half of the 10 lakh hectares where sowing should have been completed by now.
The newly formed State has an agricultural area of 40 lakh hectares. Rangareddy, Medak, Nalgonda and Khammam districts fared still worse. They received 60-90 per cent less rainfall than the normal levels. The remaining five agricultural districts (barring Hyderabad) also registered deficit rainfall.