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Farmers bidding adieu to paddy
Depleting water levels in reservoirs and persisting severe power crisis have forced Telangana farmers to go for dry and cash crops instead of paddy during the ongoing rabi season. Depending on the nature of soil, farmers chose millets, pulses and oilseeds as alternative crops in place of paddy.
Lack of irrigation facilities and power crisis force them to go for millets, pulses and oilseeds
Hyderabad: Depleting water levels in reservoirs and persisting severe power crisis have forced Telangana farmers to go for dry and cash crops instead of paddy during the ongoing rabi season. Depending on the nature of soil, farmers chose millets, pulses and oilseeds as alternative crops in place of paddy.
Cultivation of paddy has come down by 50 per cent. Paddy sowing had taken place in 3.69 lakh hectares this rabi season as against 6.8 lakh hectares last year during the same period, according to an official. With the exception of Ranga Reddy and Nalgonda districts, paddy cultivation in the rest of the districts has registered below 50 per cent. Paddy cultivation was taken up in 12,312 hectares in Ranga Reddy as against 9,235 hectares last year while Nalgonda has sown in 1,23,800 hectares as against the normal sown area of 1,53,450 hectares.
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This changing crop pattern has brought relief to the Telangana power utilities as the demand for electricity from agriculture sector has come down sharply. This has helped them in not resorting to power cuts to domestic and industrial sectors. The government has been providing free power to 20 lakh pump sets in Telangana during agricultural season.
Another reason for farmers not preferring paddy, officials claim, is the falling water levels in the reservoirs. All major reservoirs together hold only 340.14 tmcft (thousand million cubic feet) of water as on today. At this time last year, water levels stood at 568.9 tmcft. Singur, Nizam Sagar, Sri Ram Sagar, Lower Maneru, Velugodu balancing reservoir, Somasila, Kandaleru and Yeleru reservoirs were holding less than 50 per cent of their storage capacity due to scanty rainfall in the catchment areas, an official said.
In Karimangar alone, 78,000 hectares out of 1.8 hectares of land was covered under paddy cultivation. In Nizamabad, 48,000 hectares was sown with paddy as against 1.22 lakh hectares cultivated last year. Mahbubnagar district sow 35,000 hectares (as against 80,000), Warangal 27000 (as against 55,000), Adilabad 6270 (as against 12,900) and Khammam 23,000 hectares (as against 29,000 last year).
By:Patan Afzal Babu
