Prospects of a profitable kuruvai appears dull this year due to the apparent refusal of Karnataka to release water to Tamil Nadu as per the Final Award of the Cauvery Tribunal.
Farmers are a worried lot. They say the State government, which used to offer ‘kuruvai package’ and schemes for sourcing groundwater in the past, has seemingly prioritised addressing drinking water problem over borewell irrigation. Agriculture Minister R. Doraikannu did not express any commitment on ‘kuruvai package’ when mediapersons asked for the government’s stand.
Till a few decades ago, paddy cultivation in the delta region was taken up twice a year, with farmers going for short-term crops once. Change in climatic conditions and “intransigence” of Karnataka in releasing water by citing ‘poor monsoon’ have taken a heavy toll on groundwater availability due to which dependence on borewells has increased. Unfortunately, Karnataka has cited the use of borewell water for irrigation as a pretext for not releasing the specified quantum of water, a representative of farmers’ association lamented.
Since Karnataka had failed to release the due share of water to Tamil Nadu and Puducherry from December, water level in the Stanley Reservoir is not sufficient to open the sluice gates on June 12 as per the annual calendar, officials said.
It was in anticipation of such a crisis that the general secretary of Tamil Nadu Cauvery Delta Farmers’ Welfare Association, S. Ranganathan, and other farmer leaders had advised farmers during the last samba harvesting period itself to desist from raising water-intensive crop during the summer season. Depleting the groundwater resource for cultivation could lead to drinking water shortage problem, they had apprehended.
Water sourced from borewells had been used by a small section of affluent farmers to raise kuruvai nursery. They are in the process of transplanting the same in about 20,000 hectares out of the targeted 35,000 hectares in Thanjavur district this year.
Secretary of Thanjai District Cauvery Farmers’ Protection Association Sundara Vimalanathan said the ryots who had taken up kuruvai cultivation were reconciled to the eventuality of depending on borewells. Even if Karnataka released 9.19 TMC of water complying with the directive of the Cauvery Water Management Board, it could be utilised only to solve the drinking water crisis though the ground water could be replenished to some extent, he said.
