With the delay in the arrival of monsoon in the Krishna Delta, the anxiety levels of the farmers are on the rise. Going by the report of the weather bureau that monsoon would hit the delta in the first week of June, farmers have begun levelling their paddy fields and preparing plots for nurseries. Having done what they should, they are waiting with bated breath for the rains.
“My blood pressure is increasing a little with each day the rains are delayed,” says Kankipadu farmer K. Durga Prasad. Farmers of Kankipadu and surrounding mandals are usually the first to raise seedbeds using ground water, but this year the water table has fallen so low that they are afraid that the non-submersible pumps they are using will not be able to lift the required water. Water, as per the decades-old norm, is released to the delta on June 15 to enable farmers even in the tail-end areas like Nagayalanka and Avanigadda to raise crop in time to avoid the cyclones that devastate them in the first part of November.
There is however no chance of water being released from the Prakasam Barrage as the water level in the Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar reservoirs has hit an all-time low.
The Nagarjuna Sagar Project, from which water should be released for the Krishna Delta, had only 118.81 tmcft of water on Tuesday compared to the 125.81 tmcft on the corresponding date last year. The Srisailam Dam, the other major reservoir and lifeline of both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, has only 18.72 tmcft this year compared to the 18.81 tmcft last year. Tuesday’s news that a strong El Nino would end the monsoon early has also become another source of anxiety for the farmers of the tailend areas. The water table is an average 14.86 metres below ground level (mbgl) in the State. The pre-monsoon groundwater levels which were 6.48 mbgl in 2014 fell to 10.84 mbgl in 2016 and 11.68 mbgl this year. The farmers fervently hope that there will not be too much delay in the arrival of the monsoon, says a senior Irrigation Department official.
