After the extended dry spell, huge inflows into Nagarjunasagar project and Prakasam Barrage gave the much needed fillip to farmers in Krishna delta ayacut. Authorities released 32 tmcft of water till date for kharif crops for the Krishna delta, which covers Krishna, West Godavari, Guntur and Prakasam districts.
Though the demand from farming community in the Krishna delta is more than 150 tmcft of water, authorities released 32 tmcft of water from August 1 to till date. More importantly, authorities inform that there is a possibility of the inflows increasing further in the coming days.
After moderate rains and the timely release of water for the season helped farmers a lot. Paddy crop has been undertaken in nearly 56 per cent of area in the entire delta, claimed K. Srinivasa Rao, Superintending Engineer.
The registered ayacut covers 13.8 lakh acres of agricultural land and of which 88.5 per cent is being used for paddy cultivation, 1.2 per cent for sugarcane and 10.13 per cent for aquaculture.
There is a considerable rise in the aquaculture cultivation in the delta, he explained.
In all, 44 tmcft of water has been released from Prakasam barrage, of which nearly 10 tmcft was utilised to cater to the drinking water needs of Vijayawada and Guntur. Among the 32 tmcft, 18 tmcft was released for the Krishna and West Godavari region and the rest for Krishna, Guntur and Prakasam region, he said.
However, the region still reels under a considerable deficit of rainfall this year, but thankfully there are good inflows into Munneru and Kattaleru rivulets and this has come in handy for the farming community.
The government authorities should try to store as much water released from the Nagarajunasagar project until the water from Munneru and Kattaleru are put to use, suggests Y. Kesava Rao, president of Vijayawada chapter, Andhra Pradesh Rythu Sangam.
