No water from dams, rain pushes down summer sowing in Karnataka

BENGALURU: Karnataka, which has already seen poor kharif and rabi crops, appears to be heading towards a below par summer crop, thanks to soaring temperature. About 90% of the districts reported below-normal sowing.
The latest data accessed from the department of agriculture for the first three weeks of March show overall foodgrain sowing in the state is only 21% of the normal sowing reported over the years.

While farmers should have sown seeds in 0.7 lakh hectares, they have done so only in 0.1 lakh hectares. “Sowing of water-intensive crops such as paddy is only 20% of normal and sugarcane is even worse at just 16%,” said an official.

Farmers across the state have refrained from sowing, with no category — cereals, minor millets, pulses, oil seeds or commercial crops — having met the target. Overall, sowing should have taken place in two lakh hectares of the targeted 5.4 lakh hectares in the state, but seeds have been sown only in 0.4 lakh hectares.

“Unlike kharif or rabi, the summer crop is completely dependent on irrigation and borewells. Since both the southwest and northeast monsoons failed, the groundwater has not recharged and more than 80% of our borewells have dried up. With the government not releasing water from any of the dams for agriculture, how will farmers sow,” asked Chamarasa Malipatil, a farmer leader from north Karnataka.

Although the water level in dams is comfortable, the government has secured it to manage drinking water needs till June, when the next monsoon is expected. “We’re not saying drinking water needs are unimportant, it’s just that there needs to be a way to manage water for both drinking and irrigation purposes. The government needs to put in place systems for that,” said KS Sudheer Kumar, a farmer leader from Mandya.

Malipatil said nearly 400tmc ft of water flowed into the sea from Tungabhadra and Krishna rivers after the Almatti and Tunga dams overflowed last year, which could have been safeguarded and stored had there been proper infrastructure.