Dry spell evaporates hopes of Rabi farmers

NIZAMABAD: Agriculture sector in Telangana is witnessing the worst ever drought situation in the past one decade. Farmers, who had faced severe difficulties in the last Kharif season due to prolonged dry spell and frequent power cuts, are not willing to take up sowing operations in the present Rabi season hearing heavy losses again. Almost three months have passed since the start of Rabi season, but not even 20 per cent of the normal sown area has been covered so far.
A sharp fall in the ground water table is said to be the main reason for the poor agriculture activity. Farmers who depend on canal irrigation for paddy and other crops too are not showing interest this time due to water shortage.
Many parts of Telangana recorded minus 48 cm rainfall resulting in poor recharge of ground water table and insufficient inflows into various dams and irrigation tanks across the state. Water levels in major and medium irrigation projects like Sriramsagar, Nizamsagar, Koulasnala, Singitham and Pocharam have dropped to dead storage level.
A farmer, D Srihari Goud of Machareddy mandal, who owns three acres of land, told TOI that he sowed maize in one acre and did not take up cultivation in the remaining land due to drying up of his borewell. He said farmers had already suffered huge losses during Kharif and were not in a position to bear yet another loss during Rabi.
According to agriculture department statistics, the situation in the present season is quite bad. Out of two lakh hectares proposed for Rabi season, farmers have sown crops in only 20,000 hectares so far. Different varieties of crops were cultivated in 2,50,269 hectares during 2013-14 as against the target of 1,94,293 hectares during Rabi. But this year, officials fear the total sown area may not touch even 50,000 hectares.
Agriculture joint director M Narasimha said the government in the beginning of the season had encouraged farmers to go for irrigated dry (ID) crops. But due to dry spell, even ID crops may not yield results now. Stating that farmers in some areas have not tilled their land yet, he advised farmers to cultivate sweet corn.