Amid fears that the introduction of uninterrupted power supply to agriculture sector in the State from January 1 this year has been leading to large scale exploitation of the scarce resource, the depletion of groundwater table during December 2017-February 2018 period has been observed at 1.79 metres.
Although the depletion during the period has been found to be on higher side it is not as alarming as being feared, so far. According to the Groundwater Department officials, the depletion during previous two corresponding periods — December 2016-February 2017 and December 2015-February 2016 — was 1.68 metres and 1.22 metres, respectively.
State average
The depletion of groundwater was observed higher than the State average in 16 out of 31 districts during the period with the table plunging by a highest of 3.41 metres in Medak district followed by 3.31 metres in Rangareddy and 3.01 metres in Kamareddy districts.
“One can not deny the fact that availability of power round-the-clock will prompt the farmers to go for as much extra extent as possible, provided they have sufficient water in their tube and open wells. However, the information available with us indicates that the extent of cultivation during the current rabi/yasangi season is not high as expected initially, when the 24×7 power supply to farmer sector was introduced,” a senior official of the Agriculture Department said.
Crop extent
Sowing of rabi crops has been in about 13 lakh hectares this time against 15.36 lakh ha last year as cultivation of paddy has been less than expected. The Planning Department has initially estimated that paddy could be cultivated in about 9.52 lakh ha with the availability of water in major, medium and minor irrigation sources and uninterrupted power supply. However, it is estimated to have been transplanted only in about 8 lakh ha this season against 8.66 lakh ha covered last year.
Admitting that they have been receiving representations from farmers in some areas against 24×7 power supply a senior executive of TS-Transco who did not wish to be quoted said: “They want only 12-hour day-time supply preferably in two spells in the morning and evening but since it’s the policy decision of the State government to provide uninterrupted supply to all categories of energy consumers we are prepared to supply power round-the-clock, even if it amounts to backing down of public sector generating units which have comparably higher fixed costs.”
