Plant Crops Only If Own Water Sources Exist, Officials Tell Farmers

“The question of providing surface irrigation from any reservoirs, major or medium, or small, does not arise. Every drop we have needs to be saved for drinking water requirements in the months to come,” a senior irrigation department official said.

Irrigation department officials have made it clear that any requests for irrigation will not be entertained in the Rabi season. “Unless farmers have their own water sources, they should not plant any crops during Rabi. And they may opt for irrigated dry crops if they have access to their own resources such as ground or surface water. But they should definitely not plant paddy as there is just no water for that crop this time,” the official said.

Though the government indulged in similar tough talk earlier during the Kharif crop season – which is now coming to a close — that saving water to meet drinking water needs till August 2027 will be a priority, according to sources it was learnt that on several occasions the irrigation department, under severe pressure from MLAs and some ministers, and following instructions from the government, was forced to release water for irrigating crops.

“This was mostly done in the guise of releases required to fill tanks along the way to meet drinking water requirements. Of course, the needs of farmers had to be met, at least where possible,” a senior government official said.

After saying that there would be no irrigation supply, the government changed its stand to one which said water will be given for crops where possible, which resulted in several tranches of water release from different reservoirs, such as Devadula, Jurala, Nagarjunasagar, and several others.

The latest to join this list was the Sriramsagar project (SRSP), which according to minister Adluri Laxman who told reporters in Jagtial on Sunday, was releasing 6,400 cusecs of water for nine days to meet the demand from paddy farmers in the district. The SRSP, which had 80.05 tmc ft of water on October 11 last year, had on Sunday just 45.37 tmc ft, of which around 5 tmc ft stands in dead storage – water that cannot normally be used.

Typically, during the Yasangi season, agriculture operations cover around 69 lakh acres, but last year, following a very good rainy season that extended into the Yasangi period, Telangana farmers extended their operations to 92,17,352 acres according to agriculture department’s data. Of the 91 lakh odd acres of crop land last Yasangi, paddy accounted for a whopping 65,42,155 acres.