Karnataka   

Farmers feel ‘powerless’ to save standing crops

Temporary measure: A tractor-mounted pump is pressed into service to draw water from the Tungabhadra reservoir to irrigate the land and save the standing paddy crop in Siruguppa taluk.

SIRUGUPPA: Even after a fortnight of the deluge, people in the flood-affected villages, especially those situated on the banks of river Tungabhadra and Hagari in Siruguppa taluk, are finding it difficult to pick up the threads of life and resume their routine. They are unable to do it for want of electricity.

About 290 villages in the taluk were inundated in the recent rains, resulting in scores of houses getting flattened and causing loss to standing crops.

According to a preliminary estimate, crops, mostly paddy, on around 8,000 hectares of land have been damaged in the floods.

After the floods receded, the farmers have been apprehending that the standing crops on another 8,000 hectares of land may also be affected for want of watering their paddy fields.

“Paddy crop is presently in a crucial stage of grain formation. It needs adequate water at this juncture, which we are unable to provide as there is no electricity on which we depend to draw water to water our fields. If electricity is not supplied early, we will be losing the standing crop too,” T.M.Chandrashekaraiah, former MLA and a farmer, told The Hindu.

The farmers of several villages on the river banks, including Kudadarhal, Hatcholli, Sridhargadde, Honnapur, T.S. Kadlur, Matur, cultivate their land through lift irrigation. Almost all the families here, both land owners and the landless, depend on agriculture for livelihood.

Several farmers have formed groups to pool in resources and avail themselves of loans to set up their own irrigation schemes. There are individual lift irrigation systems too.

In the flood fury, the motors and pumpsets, installed on the river banks have suffered severe damage; hundreds of electrical poles have fallen and transformers have failed. The GESCOM has been making efforts to restore power supply in the flood-hit areas and has been able to restore power supply for domestic purposes to some of the villages. However, the work of erecting electrical poles and undertaking repairs to the transformers are under way and the work is expected to be completed in about 10 days, sources said.

Meanwhile, some of the farmers have pressed tractor-mounted pumps into service to draw water from the river and water their fields through the existing pipelines.

“Without water there is no work for us or for the agricultural labourers. The works such as spraying fertilizers, spraying of pesticides, removing the weeds and the like will commence only if we release water to the fields. To save the standing crop, some of the well-to-do farmers are hiring tractor-mounted pumps. For others, the prospects of getting good yield is bleak,” said Siddanagouda, a farmer.

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