Tamil Nadu - Madurai   

Making last ditch effort to save crops

— Photo: G. Moorthy

DISTRESSED: M. Mookayee, a 70-year-old farmer of Pathinetangudi near Melur.

MADURAI: From pumping water from wells in far of places to bringing water using tankers, farmers of tail-end region in Madurai are leaving no stones unturned to save the standing paddy crop. But, for many the experimenting has only cost them more.

Farmers fear that if they do not get one or two turns of irrigation they would lose majority portion of the crop in the tail-end region in and around Melur.

Fully-grown crop, aged 70 to 80 days, in Pathinetangudi were seen drying on many fields. “Water from the last two turns of irrigation (from Vaigai dam) did not reach our fields at all,” A. Murugan (48) said.

While he tried to manually lift water from his farm pond, his two neighbours had attempted to save their crop by “buying” water from a well located some 500 metres away. Mandhaiyan had spent around Rs. 950 and Kaliammal around Rs. 600 (Rs. 75 for an hour of pumping). Spending Rs. 1,500 for a tanker load of water by another farmer too became become an additional loss to their farming activity, which has cost around Rs. 15,000 for an acre.

As the atmospheric temperature is shooting up and water becoming more scarce, even buying water from well owners would not be possible for every farmer.

“Water, these days, is so precious that we use only for just wetting the field and not to submerge the roots,” S.P.K. Subbiah of Kottakudi said.

The paddy fields in Pathinetangudi, Kottakudi and Arasappanpatti had different shades of green and yellow-coloured crops. Some had dried 15 days back, some last week and some are waiting to wither.

Farmers said the condition of crop in Navinipatti, Keelavalvu, Melavalvu, Uranganpatti and Vellalur was also the same. M. Madhayanai, who is worried of getting yield in five of seven acres said, “I am not sure of winning this year’s gambling.”

Periyar-Vaigai Single Crop Area Farmers’ Association, treasurer, R. K. Ramachandran, said farmers in tail-end areas, except for those having wells, will face a huge loss, if there was no more irrigation.

However, officials from Agriculture Department and PWD said that the loss would be around 10 to 15 per cent of area in the tail-end region.

A PWD engineer said that the plains in Melur area did not receive even normal rainfall. “Dam water could only supplement irrigation which should be predominantly through rainfall,” he said.

Meanwhile, M. Meenakshi Sundaram, veteran farmer of the area sought immediate release of at least one more turn to save the crop. He gave a petition to the District Revenue Officer and the PWD Chief Engineer.

The PWD had stopped release of water for irrigating 1.5 lakh acres in Madurai, Dindigul and Sivaganga districts on Saturday.

Ruling out any further supply of water, he said that the available storage could only suffice the drinking water requirement of the region.

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