THANJAVUR/TIRUVARUR: Farming is much like gambling, there are far too many ‘ifs’ involved, any agriculturist worth his salt will tell you. In this tightrope walk between profit and loss, nature holds the aces. If it rains, farms get inundated, and if it does not, crops are parched.
When, coming fresh from the scars of prolonged drought, farmers saw Cauvery water snake its way from Mettur to the delta, the mood in the camp was ambivalent. It did not matter that it was the first time in five years that Kollidam and Cauvery were in spate. Many a farmer wondered if only the water was released in the first half of July, they could have taken up Kuruvai on a grander scale; if only the Cauvery Water Management Authority was formed earlier, Karnataka would have given Tamil Nadu its due share much earlier. And many more ifs.
On Friday, when a swarming mass of people thronged the banks of Cauvery across the State to celebrate ‘Aadi Perukku’ on the foamy banks of the river, farmers were happy that the fresh flow would recharge the groundwater table and prevent sea water intrusion on to fields. However, the timing, they felt, was inappropriate. V Kannan, vice-president of Cauvery Delta Farmers’ Association, sums up the predicament of the men of the soil: “It would obviously recharge groundwater table and stop seawater intrusion in the coastal Nagapattinam and Cuddalore districts, but the mid-season release means it would not be helpful for either Kuruvai or Samba.”
While an incidental beneficiary of the nature’s largesse would be Chennai, which would benefit out of fresh infusion into Veeranam lake, the rice bowl of the State might not exactly reap rich dividends in the near future.
Mannargudi S Ranganathan, a veteran farmer and one of the original petitioners in Cauvery water litigation in the Supreme Court, said, “Had the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) been constituted much earlier, it could have assessed the situation and ordered release appropriately.”
Ranganathan says that the current flow would indeed recharge lakes and ancillary water systems in the new delta area irrigated by the Grand Anaicut canal. However, it’s at the tail-end that they meet the man-made hurdles. As desilting works were not carried out properly in the tail-end of Grand Anaicut, water was not available even to wet beaks. “Though sufficient funds were allotted, desilting works were not carried out in the last four to five years. Only those who had sunk borewells managed to raise Kuruvai, and those dependent on the Cauvery lost out,” he added.
So what does it spell for the prospects of Samba? “The farmers are more hopeful than in the past few years,” Ranganathan says. With water level in Mettur hovering around full capacity of 93.47 TMC (120 ft), farmers in Thanjavur, Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam district eye a profitable single-crop Samba season. However, there is a catch. To pull off a perfect Samba and Thalady seasons, the farmers will need 183.8 TMC from Mettur (60.40 TMC for samba crop taken up by transplantation, 72 TMC for direct-sown crop, 23 TMC for Thalady and 23 TMC for other crops). What it essentially means is that Mettur would need to be full to the brim for a second time this year. The figures were arrived at by P Kalaivanan of the Senior Agro Technologists Forum of Tamil Nadu.
In the din of celebration, the harsh reality of nature’s brutality is not lost on the farmers. Water from the dam was not released on June 12, the customary date, for the seventh consecutive year, as the storage was only 12.05 TMC (39.94 ft) against the full capacity of 93.47 TMC. The bounty that has sparked celebrations across the State was only due to heavy downpour in the catchments of Karnataka.
If the figures released by the Senior Agro Technologists Forum of Tamil Nadu were to be the yardstick, where would the additional requirement come from? The forum says that the requirement could be met by getting water from Karnataka during August and September. As per the schedule set by the Supreme Court, Karnataka should release 45.95 TMC in August and 36.76 TMC in September.
“Here, the negotiation skills of Tamil Nadu before the CWMA would play a major role in getting us our due share,” Kalaivanan said. “There ought to be a clear-cut formula for surplus-water sharing, otherwise Karnataka would argue that it had already released excess water to Tamil Nadu in July. In fact, Karnataka released water to avert disaster there as all its reservoirs were full to the brim,” he added. Another suggestion put forth by the forum pegs on stopping water release from Mettur during Northeast monsoon.
V Satyanarayanan, a leading farmer from Tiruvarur district, suggested that those taking up Samba cultivation by transplantation would benefit, if works are started in the second or the third week of August. “Those who opt for direct sowing should delay work by another week,” he added.
The reason: “If crop is cultivated earlier, it would come to flowering stage when the Northeast monsoon is at its peak. This would lead to pollen grains shedding and result in drastic reduction in yield,” he added.
Meanwhile, the farmers are faced with another problem: shortage of long-term seeds. Agriculture officials in Thanjavur and Tiruvarur have already given specifications regarding the most ideal crop. Efforts are on to help farmers in every stage of their work.