: Overnight rains, widespread and heavy, drenched several parts of the Delta region on Thursday, raising hopes among the farmers of saving their standing samba paddy crop. The increased discharge from the Mettur dam and prospects of more rains in the days to come have only added to their cheer.
The sky remained overcast since Wednesday morning in the Delta region, threatening to break into showers any time. Later on, it rained heavily in various parts of Thanjavur and Nagapattinam districts while some parts of Tiruvarur experienced mild showers on Wednesday and in the early hours of Thursday. Rain and thunder showers drenched Thanjavur town, Tirukkattupalli, Tiruvaiyaru, Papanasam, Kumbakonam, Vettikkadu, Orathanad and Grand Anicut areas of Thanjavur district and Mayiladuthurai, Sirkali and Tranquebar areas of Nagapattinam district.
In the meantime, samba paddy crop raised on close to nine lakh acres in the Delta districts of Thanjavur, Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam was found withering for want of water in many regions. While 2.60 lakh acres are under samba paddy in Thanjavur district, a total of 3.04 lakh acres are covered by the crop in the neighbouring Tiruvarur district even as Nagapattinam district accounted for 3.36 lakh acres.
“We were expecting Karnataka to comply with the Supreme Court orders and release water. When that did not happen, we thought that the rain Gods will save us. That too did not happen until now. There was not adequate water flowing down the Cauvery for us to irrigate our fields. But Wednesday’s rains have brought a ray of hope. We are hopeful that the rains might continue for some more days even as the regular north-east monsoon sets in,” said Swamimalai S. Vimalnathan, secretary, Cauvery Farmers Protection Association.
In many areas, farmers have paid other ryots who have pumpsets to raise nurseries hoping that eventually rains would supplement the irrigational needs. But that is not to be.
Those crops are around 30 days’ old now and are yet to be transplanted, Mr. Vimalnathan pointed out, adding only the timely onset of the north-east monsoon will make that possible.
These initial showers are especially helpful for the germination of seeds in the directly sown fields of Tiruvarur and Nagapttinam districts.
The ploughed fields had been looking barren all these days after the farmers went in for large-scale direct sowing which the State Government encouraged in a bid to reduce consumption of water, according to Agriculture Department officials.
