State govt hopes for some wet respite in next fortnight, begins fallback relief
For Golla Buddanna, 65, a farmer in Sankireddipalli village in Kotta Kota Mandal of Mahaboobnagar district, hanging on to his 10 acres of dry land and waiting for a buyer has become a part of his daily routine. However, there are hardly any takers for his land, as the semi-arid area has been witnessing erratic rainfall and overexploitation of the meagre groundwater resources.
“While last year was much better, the situation this kharif season is worse, as we still have no rainfall and our borewells have completely dried up. While the cotton seeds didn’t even germinate, the castor crop was half sprouted, leaving me a loss of Rs 20,000. The land is not even suitable for growing forage crop. With milking now being my main cash flow, I had left the castor crop for my buffalo herd to graze,” says Buddanna.
He is one of the 1,800 farmers in Sankireddipalli hit by the drought conditions, throwing them into a debt trap. The village, which has 700 acres of wet land and 2,000 acres of dry land, has a lift irrigation canal, constructed at a cost of Rs 8.13 crore to bring 2,131 acres of ayacut under cultivation.
“The canal dried up much before the groundwater resources depleted. Almost all the farmers had abandoned farming this year and now barely 85 acres in the village is under paddy, jowar, red gram and castor cultivation. Many of these farmers are carrying the debts of the previous years and had borrowed more for this kharif season. About 800 farmers migrated to Hyderabad, Karnataka and Maharashtra to find jobs to support their families and re-pay debts, while some, along with their cattle, migrated to the Jurala irrigation project area in search of greener pastures,” says Sankireddipalli village head, S Damodar Goud.
Things are no different for the farmers of Palem, a 1,000-acre revenue village in the same mandal. However, the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) has come as a boon for them during these turbulent times.
Says Ramulu, owner of an eight-acre paddy field and one of the 280 farmers now engaged in land levelling, jungle clearance and land development on 300 acres under the NREGS: “Though the Rs 100 that I earn now from the NREG scheme every day is enough to support my family, I am finding it difficult to pay the Rs 300-per month fee of my two children who are studying in a private school in Kotha Peta. Now I am planning to admit them in a government school.”
The situation is much worse in Shankaraiah Palli in Jadcherla mandal of the district, where about 1,500 acres of agricultural land was devastated due to lack of rainfall and the prolonged ‘summer-like’ weather this kharif. Devili, owner of four acre, was abandoned by her two sons, who migrated to Hyderabad to work as daily labourers in construction projects. Now, her only livelihood is agriculture.
“I made a profit of Rs 20,000 in the 2008 kharif season. This year, I sowed jowar, maize and cotton in my four acres. Bores had dried up already and with the lack of rainfall and record temperatures, the entire crop was scorched dry. I had borrowed Rs 25,000 from a money lender to invest in seeds, fertilisers and to hire a tractor to till the land. Now, I don’t know how to repay that debt,” she laments.
After four years of bountiful rainfall, drought is looming large over Andhra Pradesh, with 1,028 out of the 1,128 mandals and 21 of the 23 districts in the state receiving 40 to 50 per cent deficient rainfall during the current kharif season.
Till August 10, according to official estimates, the state had received an average rainfall of 155.8 mm, as against the normal rainfall of 352.8 mm. While 11 districts received deficient rainfall, 10 others received scanty rainfall.
Consequently, the area under crops sown so far has drastically declined to 3.8 million hectares (mh) from a normal of 5.6 mh and against last year’s 5.15 mh. Compared with last year’s kharif season, the area under paddy declined by 273,000 hectares to 723,000 hectares. East Godavari, West Godavari and Krishna districts, considered rice bowls, have reported deficit rainfall ranging from 40 to 65 per cent.
More than the paddy farmers, the groundnut cultivators seem to have been worst affected by the prolonged dry spell. Groundnut has been sown only in 457,000 hectares in the current season, against 1.2 mh in the same period last year.
However, Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy is yet to declare the state as drought-hit. He is hoping that the situation might change in the next fortnight, when the state normally receives the second spell of rains under the South-West monsoon. “Drought will be declared in the state, if there are no rains by the end of August,” he said.
Nevertheless, he announced a contingency plan that envisages sowing of alternative crops, organising cattle camps and providing employment to the people in drought-affected areas under the NREGS.
The chief minister said Rs 7,000 crore would be spent under NREGS to provide employment. Special officers would be appointed for undertaking drought relief measures in each affected mandal and revenue divisional officers would oversee payment of wages to NREGS beneficiaries.
The relief measures announced by the state government include sanction of Rs 35 crore for promoting the cultivation of alternative crops like maize, jowar, castor, sunflower and redgram in about 1.1 mh. This apart, Rs 5 crore would be given for vegetable cultivation, Rs 7.95 crore for subsidised seed to farmers for growing fodder and Rs 3.5 crore for setting up cattle camps in 10 districts.
