THANJAVUR: Many delta farmers who were sceptical about cultivation of the long-term samba paddy crop till last week are now rethinking their decision, thanks to good rains over the last few days in Karnataka and the Western Ghats. Water from Kabini reservoir in Karnakata gushing towards Tamil Nadu during the weekend has been good news.
Till Friday, water levels in Mettur stood at only 54.5 feet (20.77 TMC) compared to the full capacity of 120 feet (93.47 TMC), and the inflow was 5,411 cusecs. But the inflow had risen to 77,084 cusecs by Saturday evening, and storage level reached 60.15 feet (24.79 TMC). Customarily, water would be released from Mettur dam for the short-term Kuruvai crop on June 12 and for long-term Samba from July end. However, for the past eight years, water has not been released from Mettur for Kuruvai. Last year, water was released from Mettur dam on July 20 and subsequently reached the Grand Anaicut on July 22 before being released for irrigation in the delta area.
Uncertainty continues
This year though, many farmers are uncertain. “Farmers did not prepare the field with summer ploughing as there were no rains in our region”, says S Sivakumar, a young farmer from Manathidal near Tiruvaiyaru. He says farmers are clueless as there has been no announcement from the government and adds that even farmers who cultivated kuruvai crop using groudwater pumped by borewells are worried as water levels have gone down. He says all depends on the opening of Mettur reservoir and the farmers regaining their confidence.
However, agriculture department officials are hoping for a successful samba season this year. “Besides the water being released from Kabini, the Bhavani Sagar Dam too is expected to be full in a few days. The surplus from Bhavani would flow directly to the Grand Anaicut”, the official said. Once the water reaches Grand Anaicut, it could be used for samba preparations, he added.
Officials are also hopeful that the samba cultivation target for this year could be achieved. Last year, in Thanjavur district, against a normal of 1.05 lakh hectares, only 97,151 hectares could be achieved in Samba season. However, this shortfall was attributed to the increased Kuruvai cultivation last year. “The combined Kuruvai, Samba area under cultivation was 1.40 lakh hectares last year and we could achieve the same target this year too”, say agriculture department officials.
However, though water inflow has been increasing, it remains to be seen if the flow could be sustained. “According to forecasts, clouds in the catchment areas may disperse after 3-4 days. Hence, assuming that the current flow of around 1 lakh cusecs would continue for another five days, the accumulation in the Mettur dam would be around 40 TMC”, says P Kalaivanan, a senior agro technologist. He points out that, with the present storage of around 20 TMC, Mettur reservoir will then have around 60 TMC of water.
“Water release would depend on further inflows and it would be prudent to save water and release it after August 25”, he added. He points out that, for at least 50 per cent of the total of 4.5 lakh hectares in the delta districts to be cultivated with direct sowing method, the water requirement would be around 180 TMC. “For this, Mettur dam has to attain its full capacity of 93 TMC twice during the season,” he points out, adding that there is a need for a considered decision on the date of opening of Mettur dam.
As for rainfall, he said during Southwest monsoon, rains could be expected only till September 15 at the most and then, there would be a gap of more than one month before the Northeast monsoon sets in. “It is this monsoon that gives rain to delta areas and not in the catchment areas of Mettur dam,” he said.
Pending PWD works
Arupathy P Kalyanam, General secretary of the Federation of the Cauvery Delta Farmers Associations, opined that the government should open the sluices of the Mettur dam once storage levels hit 90 feet so that the draining of the surplus into sea, as it happened last year, could be avoided. He said only if water begins flowing in the all the 36 rivers and 1,665 A-class channels in the Cauvery system by the first week of September, Samba cultivation could be taken up successfully.
He also voiced concern about the many works undertaken by the PWD in the canals and rivers that are still incomplete, and might hamper water flow once the Mettur dam is open. “PWD should come out with a white paper on the progress of works undertaken by it and except those works which need to be completed so road connectivity is not affected, other works need to be stopped forthwith to facilitate flow of water in the channels,” he added.
He also rued that in the recent past, water from Mettur had been diverted — in excess to the amount allotted under the Mettur reservoir rules — to channels in Salem district. “Delta farmers would be forced to approach court against violation to the rules framed for the use of Mettur reservoir water, which is primarily meant for Cauvery delta districts”, Kalyanam said.
Officials upbeat
Meanwhile, agriculture department officials said they are ready with seeds. “In Thanjavur district, we have disbursed around 400 tonnes of ‘CR Sub’ variety paddy seeds of long-term duration which would take 155 days to grow,” officials said. But as long-term varieties can be sown only up to the first week of September, farmers of late prefer only medium duration varieties as water release from Mettur gets delayed.
The agriculture department has also stocked 500 tonnes of medium duration seed varieties (120-140 days) like CO-50, Sorna Sub and TKM 13. Farmers prefer BPT-5204 which is not recommended by the agriculture department. All said and done, transplantation or direct sowing of paddy crops should be completed before the last week of October so that the crop is at least 20-25 days old when the Northeast monsoon sets in around October 15, says P Kalaivanan. He said if the crop is very young, it would be affected by the rains. Kalaivanan advised farmers to take up ploughing of their fields using the sporadic rains in parts of the delta, so that weeds could be removed and the land kept ready when samba sowing is taken up.