According to state revenue minister Ashok Gajapati Raju, on the one side the water levels in the Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar reservoirs have been depleted making it difficult to provide water for the wet crops, while the godowns of the Food Corporation of India are full with earlier supplies.

However, he said that the government has not yet made its final decision about the supply of water to the wet crops, but proposed to farmers to go for dry crops considering the water scarcity.

The FCI has decided to procure about 30 lakh tons of raw rice and 20 lakh tons of boiled rice for the kharif season, the minister said. The government has requested the FCI to increase the paddy collection centre from the existing 140 for the procurement of rice.

In the last rabi season, the total area cultivated under Krishna delta was about six lakh acres while under Nagarjunasagar area was about 3.5 lakh acres. As per the government projections, about 46.36 lakh tons of paddy is expected to be produced during the rabi season this year. The minister said that the target for kharif season is about 80 lakh tons of paddy, which is expected to be met this year. This will further increasing the rice supply position in the state.