Upbeat farmers eye bumper harvest once again

TIRUCHY: As the water release from Mettur is certain on its mandatory date this year also, the farmers from 12 districts down the Cauvery Delta region are on cloud nine.

The water level in Mettur reservoir stood over 103 feet for the past several weeks and the farmers who enjoy irrigation benefits are preparing their lands for cultivation.

They are optimistic of cultivating over 17.37 lakh acre kuruvai, samba and thalady with hope of yet another bumper harvest this season too and at the same time, the farmers from the region have urged the State government to get the due share of water from Karnataka.

Since 2021, the water release from the Mettur reservoir was regular which elated the Cauvery delta farmers who are dependent on this for irrigation.

Officials said that in 2021, the water was released on its mandatory date of June 12 while in the year 2022, water was released on May 20, earlier than the usual date, as there was water storage in the reservoir.

“It was a historical event that water was released earlier and that too during the summer and the farmers were elated and that resulted into a bumper harvest for both Kuruvai and Samba,” a senior agriculture officer said.

For the third year in a row, the water level stood over 100 feet in the Stanley Reservoir (Mettur dam) and the State government has announced to release water on June 12, the customary date of release and this made the Delta farmers active and making their lands ready for another season and thus a bumper harvest.

According to the Water Resource Department officials, on Saturday, the Mettur level stood at 103.78 feet against its full capacity of 120 feet and the storage was 69.747 TMC against the full storage capacity of 93.473 TMC which is over 74 per cent of its full capacity. While the inflow on Saturday was 2,463 cusecs and the outflow for the drinking water purpose was 1,503 cusecs.

Since the meteorological department predicted southwest monsoon in the catchment area which would ensure adequate water storage in the Mettur and the release of water on its customary date of June 12 would not be a problem.

On Friday, Minister for Municipal Administration, Urban and Water Supply KN Nehru announced that Chief Minister MK Stalin is scheduled to visit Salem on June 11 and would release water from Mettur on June 12 for the Delta irrigation.

Farmers said that the release of water from Mettur would benefit irrigation of lands in Namakkal, Karur, Tiruchy, Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Mayiladuthurai, Nagapattinam, Cuddalore, Perambalur, Ariyalur and Pudukkottai districts.

“For cultivating kuruvai, samba, and thalady, we need water for 220 days from June 12 and thus we need at least 372 TMC water for cultivating all three crops. If the monsoon rains are received as per schedule, the water demand would be less. At the same time, the State government should get the due share of water from Karnataka. However, for the past few years, we have received a good spell of rain and there may not be a problem for them to share the water,” said A Sundarrajan, a senior farmer from Thanjavur.

Meanwhile, the agricultural officials claimed that the farmers have already commenced the preparatory works for cultivating kuruvai anticipating the prompt release of water, and this year, cultivation acreage would increase at least 10 per cent more.