For the second year in succession the State has lost the short-term kuruvai paddy crop.
As against the normal coverage of three lakh hectares, only 53,300 hectares have been brought under cultivation this year. Last year, the coverage was 56,500 hectares
In the Cauvery delta districts, where the majority of the area of 2.07 lakh hectare is covered, so far 14,000 hectares have been brought under cultivation.
Poor storage
Farmers who have filter point wells alone have gone in for kuruvai. The rest, who depend on Cauvery water for irrigation, has skipped it as the Mettur reservoir could not be opened in time, i.e on June 12 due to poor storage.
According to Public Works Department officials the storage should be at least 50 thousand million cubic feet on June 12 for releasing water from the reservoir for kuruvai cultivation.
This year on June 12, the storage was only 41.75 tmcft, against the capacity of 93.4 tmcft, forcing the authorities to postpone the water release. The officials said the inflow in the reservoir also was not encouraging to take any risk. In the absence of substantial rains in the coming weeks, it would be difficult to release water from the reservoir in the near future, they added.
Small and marginal farmers who depend on river water wanted the government to build up a considerable storage so that adequate water would be available for long-term samba crop.
Arupathi Kalyanam, convenor of the Tamil Nadu Paddy Farmers' Consortium, told The Hindu that even farmers who had raised kuruvai nurseries with the help of filter point wells were finding it difficult to maintain water supply due to inadequate power supply.
At present, farmers were getting only 9 hours of power supply against the minimum requirement of 14 hours of supply.
If the government supplied power for 14 hours ? 9 hours during night and five hours in the morning ? kuruvai could be raised in more areas, he added.
