Crop in hundreds of acres withering

Adilabad: Paddy farmers are hard hit by the severe drought conditions in Adilabad district. Paddy is being cultivated in thousands of acres under agricultural wells and borewells in Nirmal, Mudhole, Khanapur, Dilwarpur, Laxmanchanda, Mamda, Sarangapur and other mandals.

As usual, paddy crop was raised in about 5,000 acres in these mandals this season. On an average, Rs 20,000 was invested on the paddy crop per acre. Some of the farmers borrowed money from local lenders at a high rate of interest to raise the crop due to lack of working capital.

The acute drought conditions resulted in alarm decline in the groundwater table. As a result, farmers were not able to draw adequate water from borewells to irrigate the crop. The agricultural wells dried up. Due to lack of proper irrigation facility, standing paddy crop is withering in the area.

Speaking to The Hans India, Lakshmaiah, a farmer, said: “A majority of paddy ryots have gone bankrupt. A farmer who used to cultivate paddy in five acres in normal times, reduced the extent of the crop to one acre due to the severity of drought. The alarming decline in the groundwater table has proved that the borewell water is highly inadequate to irrigate the paddy crop in the region.’’

At Kamkati village in Sarangapur mandal, paddy crop in about 400 acres was completely damaged. The paddy fields became totally dry in many villages and large cracks appeared in the soil. The farmers, who left no stone unturned to water their paddy crop, threw their hands up in despair. They allowed cattle to graze in the fields as there was no scope to salvage the crop.