Delta farmers seek change in crop pattern

TIRUCHY: With the Mettur level gradually declining day by day and the storage on Sunday to be just 20 tmc ft against 68 tmc ft on the same day during the previous year and the groundwater level depleting fast, the Cauvery Delta farmers have been sitting fingers crossed that the cultivation of kuruvai would certainly fail to yield and, therefore, they appeal to the government to work on change in crop pattern.

“This time, the Metter level has gone to 53 feet and has been declining gradually day by day and this is something unusual happening and so the government should ask the farmers to skip Kuruvai this year,” said Swamimalai Sundara Vimalnathan, Secretary, Tamil Nadu Cauvery Farmers’ Protection Association.

He said, if the kuruvai has been skipped the usual 3.60 lakh acre cultivation in the region would be affected and the government should chart out an alternate income source to farmers as well as the farm labourers. Even if it rains from June as per the IMD prediction, it will not help the farmers in cultivating kuruvai.

“If Kuruvai fails, the economic condition of the farmers from the delta region would be affected and so the farm workers who cannot celebrate Deepavali this year. So it is with the government to declare a natural disaster and chart out a solution for the livelihood of the farmers,” Vimalnathan said.

Meanwhile, the farmers who are planning to take up early kuruvai are also under risk this time as the groundwater level had declined deep for the past three months from January to March this year.

“For instance, the groundwater level in Tiruchy has gone 6.73 metres low during March this year against 4.75 metres during March 2023 and the groundwater level has been good deeper and deeper day by day and this is the condition of every district in the region and so taking up summer crops and early kuruvai are also a risky factor,” he said.

While Arupathy P Kalyanam, General Secretary of Federation of Farmers’ Associations, said that once in all the delta regions used to get water within 50 feet, but for the past few years, the groundwater table showed too low and the same spots forced deep bore well that could draw water as deep as 300 feet and this would soon pave way for turning the delta into a desert.

He said earlier the Cauvery used to have water for at least seven months and the groundwater used to be charged up as 9000 sq km water bodies including sub canals of the Cauvery used to recharge the groundwater and the regular release of water for the irrigation seasons had irrigated the fields but things have changed as the Karnataka failed to release the rightful water to Tamil Nadu and now, they cite the poor rainfall for the reason.

“But, in fact, Karnataka has developed several lakes after 2005 and filled adequate storage of water from the Mettur reservoir. From then, they are in the practice of releasing only excess water,” Kalyanam added.

Claiming that the indiscriminate sand mining is one of the causes for depletion of groundwater, Sundara Vimalnathan charged that illegal sand mining has been going on in the Cauvery and Kollidam river beds with the ‘blessings’ of the some officials.

He urged the government to organise a meeting of officials with the farmers and allow them to air their grievances without the interference of the political parties.

Ryots advised to skip Kuruvai, take up short term crops

The Senior Agro Technocrats Association, advised the Cauvery delta farmers to skip the Kuruvai cultivation and to take up alternate crops like maize, sorghum, pulses as severe drought conditions are anticipated throughout the season and the drying up of groundwater level.

According to the senior agro technocrat P Kalaivanan, despite the IMD’s long-term forecast that an above average rainfall might be witnessed from the month of May, he pointed out that an extraordinary situation has been prevailing in the delta districts this year compared to previous year. During the last 150 years, during 1892, 1897 and 1909 the rainfall during the north east monsoon was less than 300 mm. And, there was no dam across the Cauvery during those years and so the total quantum of water had been received in the delta region and there might have been no drought in the region in those years.

Similarly, the year 1976 was a year of challenge for the delta farmers, due to the unprecedented failure of south west monsoon and during this time, water was released from Mettur dam only on July 24, 1976, almost 45 days behind the normal schedule date of release. Hence, farmers in the Delta area were advised to go for direct seeding in low lying areas and for other light duty crops in the high patches. A generation of farmers who had not known anything other than raising wet paddy for the first time in their life took to broadcasting of paddy with firm faith in nature and the farmers raised the alternate crops like cumbu, maize, ragi and groundnut instead of traditional kuruvai paddy were raised in patches.

During that year, the alternate crops like cumbu, maize, ragi and groundnut were cultivated and interestingly the expected result was received. Cumbu yield was 9 to 24 quintal per acre while maize was 7 to 14 quintal per acre, ragi was 8 to 13 quintal per acre while groundnut was 6 to 8 quintal per acre and the farmers managed to compensate the paddy loss this year, said, V Palaniappan, senior agricultural scientist.

This experience of delta farmers has helped the agricultural department officials to advise direct sowing in 1987 when the Mettur was opened only on November 9 and closed on November 29. That year, nearly 2.10 lakh hectare land was brought under direct sowing and succeeded with a production of one million tonnes of rice.

Similarly, the expert team has urged the farmers to quit kuruvai cultivation and take up alternate cultivation which would compensate for the paddy failure. The experts advise the farmers to take up short term crops like maize, black gram, green gram, groundnut and other millets which need less water and expected to give more yield.

For instance, maize which is a 90-day crop and would give a similar yield to paddy and the income would also be almost similar. They predict the income would be Rs 85,400 per hectare while black gram and green gram are 70 day old crops which would give the income of Rs 76,000 per hectare, he said.

Senior agri technocrats favour Mettur to open on August 15

Citing the IMD prediction of moderate and above moderate rainfall in the months of May and June, the Senior Agricultural Technocrats have urged the Delta farmers to wait till August as the water might not support in cultivation of early kuruvai cultivation and recommend the State government to open water from Mettur on August 15.

“Since the rainfall is predicted in the months of May and June, taking up the usual cultivation is meaningless and so those who opt for direct sowing can go ahead with the early samba cultivation,” said P Kalaivanan, the senior agricultural technocrat.

He suggested the single crop cultivation this year and the leftover kuruvai could be compensated with the samba season. “The direct sowing can cover 50 percent of cultivation,” he said.

Since Kuruvai cannot depend on the Mettur water as per the present scenario, the technocrat has decided to recommend the government to release water from Mettur on August 15 so that it would support the ensuing samba cultivation as the initial works for samba might be started by the time, said Kalaivanan.