Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project set to give big boost to farm production

State Agriculture department claims that completion of KLIP would give a fillip to several districts in the State to compete with neighbouring States in the production of crops like banana, sugarcane and paddy

Hyderabad: State Agriculture department officials claim that the completion of irrigation projects like Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP) would give a fillip to the production of water intensive crops like banana, sugarcane and the like in Telangana and to compete with other neighbouring States.

Speaking to The Hans India, senior official in the department pointed out that the total extent of banana cultivation in the State is about 5,000 acres. And, it has huge export potential as well as demand from the northern parts of the country. Farmers from the State could benefit from tapping this market. Currently, the export demands of the north Indian markets are met from the States like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Gujarat, the official said.

However, all parts in those States are not congenial in growing banana, sugarcane and other water intensive crops.
For example, Jalgaon in Maharashtra has dry weather and it does not have the required Relative Humidity (RH) to grow banana cultivation.

However, the district produces about 3.4 million tonnes of bananas meeting nearly 70 per cent of Maharashtra’s demand and has a share of nearly 12 per cent in the total national production of bananas. ``It also meets the demand from the north Indian markets from May to August. Similarly, from September to February, Kadapa and Anantapur from Andhra Pradesh supply bananas to the north Indian markets, he said.

These districts could achieve this feat by applying drip irrigation and optimum utilisation of existing irrigation channels, density plantation besides adopting best practices. ``It takes about 1,500 litres of water to cultivate a kilogram of banana and about 3,000 litres to produce a kilogram of rice,” he said.

Currently, drip irrigation has already been making inroads in several parts of Telangana and farmers are adopting new practices and technologies. But, the main hurdle is lack of water from irrigation canal system which forces farmers in the State to depend on about 25 lakh borewells to cultivate crops.

But, half of the borewells go dry during the months of April, May and June. That apart, high velocity winds (HVW) and hail storms are the other factors preventing farmers to grow banana. Besides addressing these issues, the State Agriculture department, its research centres and Agriculture University have necessary know-how to transfer the best practices and technology to farmers in growing banana crop in the State.

And, once the KLIP is completed, it would rewrite the crop patterns in districts like Warangal, Nizamabad, Medak and Rangareddy to compete with districts like East Godavari, West Godavari, Kadapa and Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh,
Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, Jalgaon and Dhule in Maharashtra, he said. Further, while water intensive crop like paddy has already picked up a lot in the State, senior officials feel that the new irrigation facilities would also bring back the sugarcane cultivation in the State.

BY V R C Phaniharan