JANNARAM (MANCHERIAL): Paddy plantation within the Kadam ayacut area of around 66,000 acres has picked up with heavy rains in the area after a prolonged dry spell of nearly 45 days.
Farmers, who had so far been worried, now express confidence that they will be able to save their crops in the immediate future utilising their borewells and agriculture wells. In the worst-case scenario, they feel they will be able to persuade the government into releasing water from the Kadam project, which has received heavy inflows into the project from upstream areas.
Significantly, many farmers are cultivating paddy ignoring the agriculture officials’ advice not to go for the paddy crop but cultivate pulses or other alternative crops for this Kharif following water shortage and lack of rains due to the El Nino effect.
Paddy plantation is in full swing in Utnoor, Kadam, Jannaram, Dandepalli, and Luxettipet areas in Nirmal and Mancherial districts. Despite warnings to the contrary, farmers in these areas had raised nurseries of paddy plants. They are transplanting these saplings with the receipt of heavy rains.
Currently, farmers are not worried in case water shortage continues due to the El Nino effect. They have also not heeded to the warning of Irrigation officials that water being stored in reservoirs will be reserved for supplying drinking water to the people.
Following receipt of inflows into the Kadam project, Irrigation officials released water to downstream Sripada Yellampalli project, so that it could store water for drinking purposes for areas under the project.
Agriculture labourer Bhagya said, “Paddy planting has just begun after a long wait for rains in Seethanagar, Bogadaguda in Kagaznagar mandal. Transplantation of paddy saplings has also picked up in the Sirpur (T) assembly constituency.
Some farmers of Tapalpur in Jannaram mandal, including Kammala Vijaya Dharma, staged a rasta roko demanding that Irrigation officials immediately release water into the left canal of the Kadam project on Friday to save the paddy crop that they have already sown.
It is learnt that Khanapur MLA Vedma Bojju and Mancherial MLA Premsagar Rao would officially release the water from Kadam project into its left canal on Saturday. However, it is said that water would be released for only 30,000 acres. Farmers at the tail-end may thus not receive any water.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
