Tamil Nadu - Madurai   

A farmer's resolve to save dying crop

By S. Sundar

MADURAI, FEB.1. K. Ramar of Vilathoor near here is a die-hard farmer at 52. Unlike others, he has not just stopped with ruing his fate over the paddy crop that is slowly dying.

Keeping his fingers crossed, he is now injecting life into those drooping plants with water brought through tankers, hoping that there would be another turn of water release for irrigation.

It is a challenge for him to see that the crop reaches the harvest status as he is back on his farm for agricultural work after three successive years of drought. It is not a mere challenge but his livelihood. He wants to reap the "fruits" of 100 days of hard work and investment of Rs.18,000 made on cultivating two-and-a-half acres of land. He has to undergo all this pain, as the Public Works Department stopped releasing water from through the Periyar Main Canal on January 26 after the storage in both the Periyar and Vaigai dams worsened.

The release of water for the second crop was delayed by over a month. But this did not deter his enthusiasm. Making a calculative move, Mr. Ramar, who anticipated a water crisis during the crucial period, instead of raising a nursery on his own, bought seedlings at an advanced stage from Karupayoorani. He knew that the money (Rs.3000) spent on buying seedlings would compensate the delayed agricultural operations.

The land being on the tail-end region of the single crop area is a disadvantage. However, its location along the Madurai-Sivaganga road is advantageous as the tankers can reach very close to the land.

"I want at least two turns of release of water of 10 days each to take the crop towards harvest," says Mr. Ramar. He started supplementing his irrigation through tanker water from Monday. It requires at least 22 tankers of water, each costing Rs.400, to give one full wetting to his entire land. However, he has restricted the wetting to only those "raised" patches on the land, where the crop has started drooping, owing to lack of sufficient water.

His decision to restrict the number of tankers to just six is also due to his financial constraint. "I cannot afford this any more," Mr. Ramar said.

Rainfall

Meanwhile, there was a sudden change in the weather situation and the catchment areas received heavy rainfall on Monday.

The Sothuparai dam received the highest rainfall of 126 mm, followed by Peranai - 122.4, Marudanadi - 90, Bodinaickanoor - 44, Manjalar dam - 42, Uthamapalayam - 37, Aundipatti - 32, Veerapandi - 31, Vaigai dam - 30, Kuppanampatti - 25, Periyar dam - 19, Tekkadi - 18, Gudalur - 6, and Peranai - 5.4 mm.

Water level

The level in the Periyar dam stood at 112.1 feet with an inflow of 398 cusecs and a discharge of 400 cusecs. The level in the Vaigai dam was 31.76 feet with an inflow of 294 cusecs and a discharge of 30 cusecs. The combined Periyar credit was 1297 mcft.

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