Tail-end farmers in Mandya hiring water tankers to save crops

Water released from Cauvery, Shimsha and Hemavati has not reached their areas

Last resort:With the Irrigation Department stopping release of water to canals, farmers in several villages in Maddur are using tankers to wet their farmland.

Narayana, a marginal farmer from Besagarahalli of Maddur taluk, was thrilled when the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said in April that the southwest monsoon will be “good and above normal.”

The forecast of a good monsoon prompted him to take up farming. But, now Mr. Narayana is repenting for relying on the prediction that went wrong.

His enthusiasm to cultivate surgarcane had prompted other growers to follow him. Sowing of various crops was taken up on a large area in Besagarahalli in the tail-end region of the Cauvery a few months ago.

Now those crops have started withering with the Irrigation Department stopping the release of water from the Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) following depletion of water level.

While many have decided to bear the brunt of the severe drought, some others have started irrigating their land by tanker water. “I am not a stone-hearted person to allow the crops to wither. I have sold my wife’s earrings and my bracelet to pay the bills for the tanker water,” Gopi of Eeregowdana Doddi, another farmer irrigating his land by tankers, said.

For the last several weeks, the trend of irrigating land by tankers has been growing at many parts of Malavalli, Maddur, K.R. Pet and Nagamanagala taluks.

While the Cauvery and Shimsha irrigate land in Srirangapatna, Pandavapura, Malavalli and Maddur, the Hemavati supplies water to farmlands in K.R. Pet and Nagamangala taluks. The water released in recent days from the Cauvery, the Shimsha and the Hemavati has not reached the tail-end areas. Hence, the farmers here are hiring tankers to irrigate their land, Konasale Narasaraju, senior leader of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha, said.

Farmers here have lost crops owing to the escalation of the Cauvery water crisis and drought since 2012. Expecting a bumper yield this year and anticipating compensation for the loss that they had occurred owing to various reasons in previous years, the farmers had cultivated paddy, sugarcane and other crops across the district. But, they are losing them at tail-end regions, Mr. Narasaraju said.

The efforts to save their crops are also causing financial burden on the farmers as each tanker of water costs at least Rs. 300.

The State government should take steps to release water to save the crops and also to ensure that water reaches the tail-end regions, Mr. Narasaraju said.