Farmers in Prakasam district are jubilant as Srisailam reservoir filled to the brim on Wednesday thanks to heavy inflows from the catchment areas.
The ryots, coming under the Nagarjunasagar right bank canal, are now sure of getting water to raise paddy or irrigated dry crops on 4.44 lakh acres in the drought-prone district and escape from the agony of leaving their lands fallow for the fourth year in succession.
With an inflow of 1.51 lakh cusecs, the Srisailam reservoir touched 884.4 ft as against the full level of 885 ft after discharge of 88,000 cusecs downstream.
As a result, the farmers in the drought-prone district nurtured hopes of raising paddy at least this year as the storage in Nagarjunasagar went up to 159.34 tmc ft as against its capacity of 312.05 tmc ft.
“If the present inflow of about a lakh cusecs continues for another 10 days or so ensuring water for farmers under zone one and two of Nagarjunasagar right bank canal will not be a problem,” District Irrigation Superintending Engineer K.V.Ramana said.
“We will pitch for allotment of 40 to 45 tmc ft of water from Nagarjunasagar before the Krishna River Management Board to grow wet as well as irrigated dry crop,” he added.
The combined storage in Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar stood at 386 tmc ft and another 100 tmc ft of water is likely to add in the next 10 days or so.
The unusual flood in river Krishna in the second week of October has come as a pleasant surprise for farmers in the drought-prone district, says Prakasam District Development Fourm president Ch. Ranga Rao.
Without loss of time, the State government should ensure release of 45 tmc ft of Krishna water from Nagarjunasagar reservoir Right Bank canal for the farmers in the district to go for rabi crop early and maximise output taking advantage of the optimum temperature of between 30 to 35° Celsius ideal for paddy production.
Being in the tail-end, farmers in the district in the past were able to grow crops only in 2.50 lakh to 3 lakh acres, especially after the upper riparian State of Karnataka increased the height of Almatti reservoir, he said while pressing for intervention by the officials to ensure water till the tail-end.
The crop coverage went up to 87% of the normal acreage of six lakh acres till October with red gram accounting for a maximum of 2.10 lakh acres (132% coverage), followed by bajra in 42,600 acres (94%), Agriculture Joint Director J. Muralikrishna said.
Anticipating depressed market condition this, farmers have taken up cultivation of cotton only in 85,000 acres (59% coverage) and chillies in 40,000 acres(65% coverage) during the kharif season.
