Andhra’s rainfall deficit is 52.7 percent and kharif coverage 61 percent of normal. Farmers want a drought package; none is notified on this card.

Rainfall is short by 52.7 percent. Kharif coverage sits at 61 percent of normal. A drought package is a demand, not a gazette.

On Monday, 24 August 2026, agriculture-department data reported from Vijayawada put Andhra Pradesh’s rainfall deficit at 52.7 percent and kharif cultivation far behind the season’s normal target. Farmers are demanding an immediate special drought relief package. Demand is the verb. A notified relief government order is not on this filing. This desk will not invent one.

Cultivated area on the card is 18.9 lakh hectares against a normal kharif target of 30.84 lakh hectares — 61 percent. The national average cited on the same card is 95.67 percent. Telangana is cited at 88 percent. Those three percentages stay labelled as reported agriculture-department and comparative lines. They are not a desk recalculation of every mandal.

Crop coverage versus normal, as reported: paddy 62 percent, against a national 98.32 percent and Telangana 74 percent; pulses 70 percent against 91.9 percent nationally and 117 percent in Telangana; cotton 75 percent against 86.4 percent and 102 percent; maize 61 percent against 110.82 percent and 94 percent; groundnut 34 percent against 104 percent nationally, described as the worst affected. Groundnut at 34 percent of normal is the sharpest crop line on this card.

The India Meteorological Department assessment on the same filing puts the national rainfall deficit at 13 percent. Andhra Pradesh at 52.7 percent is described among the highest for a major State, with Karnataka cited at 30 percent, Bihar at 40 percent and Punjab at 28 percent.

M.V.S. Nagireddy, former vice-chairman of the A.P. agriculture mission, said input costs have risen while incomes have fallen, and that almost the entire farm sector except the Godavari and Penna delta areas is under stress. He named groundnut, pulses, cotton, maize and millets as badly affected in Anantapur, Sri Sathya Sai, Kurnool, Nandyal, YSR Kadapa and Palnadu. Kurnool is spelled Kurnool. Nandyal is Nandyal district, not a subdivision of Kurnool district. Those spellings stay locked.

On the Krishna delta, as he cited, about 1.21 lakh hectares have been cultivated — 74 percent of normal — of which paddy is 1.19 lakh hectares, or 98.36 percent. He asked the government to release at least 10,000 cusecs to delta canals against around 6,000 cusecs now. Poor releases, he said, are forcing oil engines at an additional cost of more than ₹5,000 an acre. More than ₹5,000 an acre is his cost allegation. It is not a notified compensation figure.

Krishna basin storages on the same card: Srisailam at 875.69 feet with inflows of 82,000 cusecs; Nagarjuna Sagar at 532.9 feet with 52,000 cusecs inflow; Pulichintala at 28.39 TMC. A farmer-association challenge to advice that Krishna-delta farmers switch from paddy is reported as a challenge, not a government order.

No drought-relief gazette sits on this Monday filing. No Form B and no local-body poll date sit on this filing. Readers who want a package GO, a crop-loss survey notification, or a canal-release order for 10,000 cusecs will not find those papers here.

Vijayawada is the dateline. The rainfed belt named on the card runs Anantapur, Sri Sathya Sai, Kurnool, Nandyal, YSR Kadapa and Palnadu. This desk will not invent a mandal-wise deficit table or a second national comparison from another scrape.

The honest picture is Monday, 24 August 2026; rainfall deficit 52.7 percent against a national 13 percent; kharif at 18.9 lakh hectares versus 30.84 lakh normal, or 61 percent; crop lines with groundnut at 34 percent of normal; Krishna delta at 1.21 lakh hectares with a 10,000-cusecs ask against around 6,000; basin levels at Srisailam, Nagarjuna Sagar and Pulichintala as printed; Nagireddy’s stress map across six districts with Kurnool spelled correctly; a farmer demand for a special drought package; and no relief gazette. Until a package writes, the public file is the deficit and the demand.