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Truant rains drive Palnadu farmers into debts
Highlights
Farmers in Palnadu region are badly hit my multitude of factors and are in deep debts. Crops like paddy, chillies and cotton have dried up in the region, due to lack of rains during monsoon. Agriculture has taken a severe hit in Narsaraopeta, Gurajala, Vinukonda and Macherla.
Farmers in Palnadu region are badly hit my multitude of factors and are in deep debts. Crops like paddy, chillies and cotton have dried up in the region, due to lack of rains during monsoon. Agriculture has taken a severe hit in Narsaraopeta, Gurajala, Vinukonda and Macherla.
Due to the lack of rains farmers have taken loans for borewells which led them to a quagmire of debts, as ground water receded to new lows. Even the bore wells couldn’t salvage the drying crops and the farmers in the region are distraught and quite a few of them are resorting to suicides.
Sadly, the State government is in a siesta and is yet to come to terms with the problems faced by the farmers in the region.
Dry spell conditions and the government’s inability to release water from Nagarjunasagar right canal to the delta farmers have prompted farmers to resort to agriculture bore-wells. Many farmers have taken loans from banks and even loan sharks and spent up to Rs 1.5 lakh to dig borewells. Even though wells were dug up to 1,000 ft not even a trickle of water is seen as the ground water levels have depleted rapidly in the region.
According to official estimates out of 3,500 wells that were dug inh the region only 1,500 have water and rest are dry. Experts have blamed farmers stating that they haven’t approached geologists before digging wells instead wasted huge money on un-scientific methods. One farmer Sreenivasulu – a native of Macherla, who spent Rs 2 lakh on two new borewells in his cotton farm in a bid save the crop, took his life by consuming pesticide, as his efforts went in vain.
The average rainfall in the areas of Macherla, Rentichintala and Veldurti mandals has declined by 50 percent.
Out of the 22,000 existing bores more than 12,000 have dried up. While nearly 3,000 new bores have been sunk nearly 50 percent of the bores did not yield any water.
This precarious situation is leading farmers into financial doldrums and triggering them to press the panic button. Experts have blamed agriculture and ground water departments as they failed to create awareness.
They fear that unless government announces a contingency plan, farmers would plunge into hopelessness and chaos.
Ravi P Benjamin
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