Elusive rain leaves Telangana farmers high and dry; no relief in sight, yet

Just a couple of ‘wettings’ would have salvaged Kodavath Kishan’s two-acre paddy field. With hardly any groundwater left, there’s no way he could have revived the crop. Against 30-40 bags of paddy that he would have harvested in a normal season, he has ended up with just 10 bags.

Picking a fistful of grains, he says: “See, even much of what I got looks like husk. I don’t know how much rice I will get after milling.”

“I will sell a part of the produce in the market, keeping the remaining for the family,” Kodavath says.

To make ends meet, he, his wife and parents take up farm labour work, besides taking care of his own small holding.

It is the same with Lakshman of Jakrampally near Armoor. One half of his two-acre paddy field turned completely yellow, with greener parts of the field showing signs of withering.

“We had about 900 acres of paddy planted in the village. Almost all of it is gone. There’s no way we can revive the crop,” Lakshman says as he explains how a delayed irrigation project nearby is failing them every year in the summer.

Nizamababad Member of Parliament, K Kavitha, who is the daughter of K Chandrashekar Rao, Telangana Chief Minister, acknowledges the problem. “We knew this (shortage of water) is coming. We have asked them not go for paddy this rabi,” she says.

The State has a net sown area of about one crore acres, and farmers generally cover the entire area in kharif and about half in the rabi season. While cotton takes the lion’s share, with about 42-47 lakh acres, paddy, maize, chilli and sugarcane are the other important crops.

Barring chilli, all crops fared badly in both the seasons.

The predominantly rainfed State is now trying to build massive irrigation projects such as the one in Kaleshwaram to stabilise the ayacut and bring in additional land under agriculture.

Poor rain

Both the cropping seasons registered poor rainfall. In the kharif, the State received 661.1 mm against the normal rainfall of 719 mm, a decline of 8 per cent.

The North-East monsoon is not a major contributor to the State. Only 14 per cent of its annual rainfall is received from this monsoon. Between October and December 2018, the State got 37.4 mm against the normal of 126.1 mm, a shortfall of 70 per cent.

Sarampally Malla Reddy, Vice-President, All-India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), blames the State Government for not declaring a drought. “Andhra Pradesh has declared drought in 250 mandals. But the Telangana government is not doing that. They should assess the drought conditions and take up mitigation measures,” he said.

“If the State declares drought, we can claim Central funds to take up relief works,” he said, adding that 310 out of the 585 mandals are facing severe drought conditions and require immediate intervention by the Government.

‘Absence of water’

A top government official said: “We don’t call it drought. It is only absence of water, which is common during the rabi season when water resources go dry.”

The farmers’ association puts the loss due to drought at ₹5,000 crore. “In several areas, there were only two-three bouts of rains. As a result of the poor rainfall, yields have fallen by half in several areas,” Malla Reddy said. The AIKS is seeking relief for farmers who suffered losses and wants MSP rates for paddy that survived the drought.

According to an estimate, half the 41-lakh-acre cotton area is drought-hit. Yields halved to 5 quintals from the average of 10 quintals an acre in the drought-hit areas.

The Telangana Government claims it has brought 16.64 lakh acres more under irrigation and stabilised 9 lakh acres of ayacut in the last four years. The Mission Kakatiya, the irrigation tank restoration project, has helped revive irrigation sources, it says.

Suicides

The AIKS claims that the acute drought conditions have pushed farmers into severe financial distress. “About 60 farmers have committed suicide in the last two months. There may be a lot more who are facing severe financial crisis,” he said.

The Rythu Bandhu scheme, which provides ₹4,000 an acre in both the seasons, has helped to some extent. “It is quite handy when we budget for input purchases,” said Ch Ganganna, a farmer who has eight acres.

Commercial crops

One of the most important challenges is the gradual shift towards commercial crops. The share of food crops, which was as high as 71 per cent of the total cropped area in 2001-02, has been falling. The acreage was down 53.5 per cent in 2015-16.

Though there was a pick up in 2016-17, withthe area going up to 66 per cent, the overall trend is towards commercial crops such as cotton that are water intensive.

“Crops like paddy and cotton are not suitable for rainfed areas. There is a need to look for alternatives. We should encourage farmers to grow pulses, oilseeds and millets that can survive with low water input,” said GV Ramanjaneyulu, Chief Executive Officer, Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (CSA).

With water-intensive crops such as cotton, paddy and maize accounting for 70 per cent of the total cropped area, the stress is showing. The problem gets accentuated in the rabi season when food crops dominate the scene. Of the 40 lakh-acre of cropped area, about 34 lakh acres go for paddy.

Additional incomes

With paddy failingthem, farmers are left looking for other sources of income. 25-year-old Ganesh, a farmer from Nalgonda, teams up with his friends to collect and sell ice apples (palm fruit) in Hyderabad. “This gives us some income,” he says.

They manage to collect two-three bags of palm fruits, which sell at ₹70 a dozen.

Poor pricing

Poor price and procurement are the two challenges that farmers face. The issue of pricing, which is a recurring theme every year, led to potests and the arrest of several farmers in the turmeric belt. They held dharnas on the national highway.

“There is a discussion happening in the government on a proposal to discourage cotton in the upcoming kharif season. We did something similar about two years ago and succeeded in weaning away some farmers to other crops such as soya and maize. We are considering a repeat of the exercise,” a source in the Government said.

With farmers facing a tough season with low produce on hand, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has asked officials to ensure procurement of all the produce.

Farmers, however, are sceptical. “They are buying paddy at a very low price. Chilli farmers have realised at least ₹1,000 less than what they expected,” said a farmer.

This is the eighth part in the Drought series. The previous report appeared on April 27

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