Migration has gathered pace in Prakasam district as the severe drought that has gripped the district for the fourth consecutive year caused a production loss of about ₹1,980 crore to agricultural and horticultural crops.
The situation is grim in western parts of the district, especially in Markapur and Kanigiri Assembly segments, where an estimated one lakh people, including farm labourers and farmers, moved out to big cities such as Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad this summer for doing construction work and other sundry jobs, leaving the elderly people as also children back in the villages to fend for themselves.
Over 1.65 lakh farmers had lost over 30% of Rabi crop grown on 3 lakh acres in the district. Kotalapalle village, near Chandrasekarapuram, visited by The Hindu presented a grim picture with all farmers except for a handful of them abandoning their orchards and leaving for far away places, as a series of borewells sunk by each of them went bone dry.
The situation was no better in Pedaobinenipalli, near Bestavaripeta, as farmers were unable to provide irrigation to their orchards even after installing micro irrigation system in their fields to grow crop with every drop of water as the region was gripped by drought for the 10th year in the last 15 years.
Many of the job-seekers had completed 100 days of employment under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Scheme(MGNREGS).
Job scheme
“Unless the Union and State governments extend the number of days for wage employment per family to 150 days, the job-seekers cannot be retained in their villages,” fears Prakasam District Collector V. Vinay Chand. The district administration which has drawn ₹600 crore during last year under the job scheme needs at least an equal amount this year to provide them job, he adds.
“Irreparable damage has been done, especially to sweet lime orchards, which had been saved much against odds in the last three years, withering away in over 2,500 acres,” says Horticulture Assistant Director M. Hariprasad.
The orchards with 10 year yield potential caused irrecoverable loss to the ryots. The department has prepared an action plan to provide assistance at the rate of ₹6,400 per acre to the orchard raisers to provide water through tankers to save the standing sweet lime trees, Mr. Hariprasad adds.
