Warangal District

Warangal District is a district in the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh, India. In 2011, Warangal had a population of 3,522,644. At that time, 75.91% of males and 56.45% of females were literate.

Climate
Warangal receives an average of 1059mm of rainfall annually, mostly during the SW monsoon, between the first week of June and the second week of October. However, rainfall varies within the district, as one zone tends to receive less than 750mm/year, another between 750-1000mm, and a third over 1000mm. Overall the district is considered semi-arid. "It is also pertinent to notice that [droughts] are occurring in cyclical fashion with 2-3 years of normal years followed by 2-3 years of deficient rainfall."

Agriculture
In 2011 a study on Warangal reported that, 471,000 ha are cultivated each year, and of them, 138,900 are sown more than once, resulting in a gross cropped area of 609,800 ha. 323,900 hectares (68.8%) of cultivated land are irrigated and the remaining cropland is rainfed.

At the time, the largest crop is rice, which accounts for 198,000 hectares each year (32.5% of gross cropped area). Almost all rice cultivation in Warangal is irrigated. The next largest crop is cotton, planted on 158,700 hectares (26% of gross cropped area). Altogether, farmers grow grains (mostly rice and maize with some sorghum) on 287,000 hectares (47.1% of gross cropped area), pulses and legumes (groundnut, green gram, red gram, bajra, and bengal gram) on 104,300 hectares (17.1% of gross cropped area), and horticultural crops (mostly chillies, some turmeric) on 33,400 ha (5.5% of gross cropped area). Only 39.7% of cotton is irrigated, and the remainder is rainfed. The average cotton yield is 438 kg/ha.

For more information, see the article on Agriculture in Warangal, India.

Farmer Suicides
Several studies of farmer suicides focus on Warangal.

A 2005 study wrote: Although there is no district-level data available, available evidence, "particularly from an alert socially conscious print media in the country," points to "certain pockets within each of these states... where farm suicides are concentrated and where the problem would be very, very acute. The Vidarbha region in Maharashtra, Deccan and Hyderabad Karnataka regions in Karnataka, Telangana and Rayalaseema regions in Andhra Pradesh seem to be the ones – along with Wayanad in Kerala – have received a great deal of attention and coverage by the press on this issue... Now these sub-regions within these states – i.e., Vidharbha, Deccan and Hyderabad Karnataka, Telangana and Rayalaseema and Chhattisgarh – in fact do constitute a contiguous region in the heartland of India as it were." The area is a "semi-arid, poor, backward region in the heartland of India" and it appears that this is likely where the farm suicide issue is most severe.

Related Sourcewatch articles

 * Agriculture in India
 * India's New Economic Policy of 1991
 * Indian Fertilizer Subsidies
 * Indian Farmer Suicides

External Resources

 * Andhra Pradesh Crop Statistics