For the seventh consecutive year, farmers in the delta region have given the go by to kuruvai paddy cultivation and pinned their hopes on Mettur Dam receiving appreciable inflow to help them raise early samba crop.
Their take: If the dam is opened for delta irrigation by the first week of August with comfortable storage, then it can help them tide over the loss of kuruvai to some extent by ensuring assured samba paddy cultivation.
Also, they see the Cauvery Water Management Authority meeting in New Delhi on July 2 to discuss the Cauvery water-sharing issue as a ray of hope to bolster the storage at Mettur Dam.
While short-term kuruvai is cash crop, the long-duration samba is the staple crop for delta agriculturalists. However, their cultivation greatly depends on water release from the dam.
In the past, kuruvai paddy crop was raised in at least 1.80 lakh hectares in Thanjavur, Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam districts. But water scarcity and poor flow from Karnataka has shrunk the coverage area to around 84,500 hectares these past few decades.
This area too is sustained only by sub-surface water. Samba paddy will be raised in at least 4.50 lakh hectares in the three districts. “We hope that the southwest monsoon and the Cauvery Water Management Authority can help increase storage at Mettur Dam to appreciable quantum in the next few weeks to facilitate its opening by August first week so that we can take up early samba paddy cultivation in right earnest. We cannot go in for kuruvai and we cannot miss samba,” says S. Durairaj, a farmer of Erukkattur in Tiruvarur district.
Water supply to tail-end areas in Nagapattinam and Tiruvarur districts, besides those irrigated by the Grand Anicut Canal in Thanjavur-Pudukkottai border, must be factored in while planning the release.
“We cannot afford to lose both kuruvai and samba for which it is better to open Mettur Dam by August first week,” argues another farmer, N. Rajkumar Chozhagar of Peravurani.
Water release
Mettur Dam is opened for delta irrigation every year on June 12 and shut on January 28. During the Stanley Reservoir’s 84-year-old history, the dam has been opened on the customary date only on 14 occasions. It has been opened ahead of schedule on 11 occasions. The remaining years, including this season, the dam has missed its date.
During 2016-17, the dam was opened on September 20 and the year before that on August 9. In 2014-15, the dam was opened on August 10. It was July 2 during 2013-14 and September 17 during 2012-13.
