With the district registering poor rainfall for the last two months, farmers of Kallanai Kalvai ayacut have been keeping their fingers crossed.
They had raised the ‘deluxe’ paddy, the much sought-after variety by virtue of its assured returns. Anticipating the onset of monsoon, the ‘samba’ had been raised on about 5,000 acres in a number of villages including Egaperumalur; Aadalai; Kandeechankadu; Egani Vayal; Vellattu Mangalam; Nemmelikaadu; Tiruvaangur and Kaaraikollai.
According to a cross section of farmers, water being released from the Mettur was too inadequate to reach the tail-end areas in Pudukottai district. Though the Kallanai Kaalvai ayacut falls under the Cauvery Mettur Project (CMP) area, not much importance was being attached for the discharge of waters to the tail-end area.
Pinning their hopes on monsoon, farmers of the CMP area have been taking all efforts as part of their crop protection strategy. Although the fields are bone-dry, agricultural labourers have been pressed into service for clearing the weeds.
A farmer of Egaperumalur, R. M. Karthikeyan, who has raised the crop on 20 acres, said that the introduction of turn system for the supply of irrigation water for every alternate five days to the villages in the ayacut did more harm than good. The fields have become bone-dry. Steps should be taken to release more water from the Mettur Dam to the Kallanai Kaalvai ayacut.
The District Chairman of Farmers’ Forum of India, G. S. Dhanapathy says that many farmers have given up paddy cultivation in non-CMP area in the district. Apart from the failure of monsoon, erratic power supply for agricultural pump sets posed a serious bottleneck, he said.
He said that even those who had raised the crop in the CMP area, the yield was likely to register a dip in the wake of failure of monsoon.
