Kharif Crop Awareness Programme

The Kharif Crop Awareness Programme in the Mancherial district of Telangana is a crucial, localized initiative led by the District Agriculture Department and organizations like the ICAR-Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture (ICAR-CRIDA) to empower local farmers with climate-resilient farming methodologies ahead of the heavy monsoon sowing period. Given recent climatic fluctuations, such as the El Niño effect causing erratic and deficient rainfall, these comprehensive cluster-level training sessions actively urge the district’s farming community to shift away from traditional, highly water-intensive monoculture crops like paddy. Instead, agricultural extension officers and scientists focus on driving crop diversification, introducing drought-tolerant, short-duration paddy varieties, and strongly advocating for the adoption of less water-reliant, profit-yielding alternatives including pulses (like red gram, green gram, and black gram), maize, bajra, and cotton-based intercropping systems.